It is with great sorrow we say goodbye to one of our longest term writers and friend, Matt Winter.

Matt’s incredible photography and wide knowledge of all things outdoors - whether birds, plants or animals - has kept us all entertained for many years. Till we meet again Matt. Tribute on page 4.

There’s been a fair bit of pretty rough weather and snow in the last couple of months. A lot of the tahr ballot blocks were empty this year as hunters couldn’t get in due to the weather conditions. We’re still out there battling away with the camera trying to get a big old Red stag from the wild country on film before they drop their antlers, but due to the usual curse of the camera, mishaps like guests slipping and tearing ankle ligaments, and handicapping ourselves by trying to get one with the bow without cheating and carrying a rifle along as well – we’re still trying! We’ve got about 3 weeks left to put it together so no pressure!

A bit of important news since the last issue, starting with the cabinet reshuffle and Minister Hon Kiritapu Allan being assigned to the justice portfolio. We welcome Hon Poto Williams, as our new Conservation Minister. This is a very important portfolio for all of us, and we look forward to working with her and continuing the awesome work that Kiri started. One example of this work is the securing of four years of funding for goat control and Wild animal/Game animal management under the Te Ara Ki Mua framework. For more information on this see the article on page 18.

We’ve just had notification that DOC has postponed their battle for birds poison operations in Arawhata and Waiatoto until next year. They have already done the prefeed but the weather has been too wet to do the toxic and their science tells them that you lose the benefit of the prefeed if you leave it any later than 30 days. It will now be done in the most suitable weather window after May 2023, so that’s a reprieve for some of the South Westland Red stags for another year, if helicopter WARO doesn’t get them before then.

With the market demand and prices creeping up, the stags are going to be under increasing WARO pressure this spring after they had a bit of a reprieve for a couple of seasons over Covid. We desperately need to get some management of WARO so they target hinds for better conservation outcomes, rather than the current stag biased harvest – something we’d had serious discussions with Kiri regarding. Another issue for the incoming Minister!

We’ve got preliminary results from the GAC-organised Lake Sumner RHA management hunt. The volunteer hunters shot 126 hinds and recovered 80 uteruses for autopsy. Only one mature hind was not pregnant. Twelve of the 15 two-year old hinds were pregnant. This indicates that deer are not nutritionally stressed, the environment is keeping the hinds in good condition, supporting ovulation and conception. The Lake Sumner RHA hinds have high productivity, and the herd will continue to grow if unmanaged. This December the deer population will be at least 200 animals less due to the management hunt. This is a good outcome for future herd quality.

Some of you may have seen the release of the new Burger Fuel Wapiti Burger called Wild Heart. This is an awesome collaboration between Burger Fuel, With Wild (a group of chefs, hunters and food entrepreneurs), and the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation. The FWF is providing venison mince from their recovery operations in the Wapiti area of Fiordland, and Burger Fuel is crafting a special burger with a bunch of other locally sourced and sustainable ingredients. One dollar from every burger (for the first 30,000) is donated to the FWF to go toward herd management and conservation programs in the Fiordland National Park. The outstanding news is they have sold 5000 burgers in their first week on sale!

You’ll also see in the What’s New the release of the NZ Tahr Foundation’s new Tahr App. This is not the same as the old DOC tahr app! This has been set up by the Tahr Foundation to help work towards a review of the out dated Himalayan Tahr Control Plan and the setting up of a tahr Herd of Special Interest. Please use the new app to record all your tahr hunting successes - it is going to be essential going forward that we all support it!

The winners for last issue are Christine Gregory and John Olsen. The logos were on the Hardy Hybrid advert page 73 and the Liquid Laundromats advert on page 93.

Greg

In this issue:

• Remembering Matt Winter – A tribute by Nick Winter and Aaron Senior
• Toby Walker’s Greenstone Fallow Buck and Winter bull Tahr
• Dreams Can Come True – Darren Woods
• The Bush Piglet Part 2 - Reloading
• Te Ara ki Mua Explained with Tim Gale, Cam Speedy and DOC’s Ben Reddiex
• From Isolated to Isolation by Mitch Thorn
• Jonathan Fulton – the Story of Muzz
• All The Bells and Whistles – Bow Fitout by Cody Weller
• What Camera Should I Buy? Part 8 Video Editing
• Public Access – An Issue for All of Us, by Luke Care
• Heard of the Lake Monk Expedition? By Alex Gale
• Johnny Bissell and Tamsin Ward-Smith – Keeping Kiwi Safe
• Fogged In – By Cam Mckay | PointsSouth
• Tahr Ballot Blocks – The Zora
• Campbell Biv – Permolat
• Game Animals of NZ – Franco Formisano and the NZDA
• Matthew Greskie’s ‘Many mates Bull’
• A Week of Wily Mallards by Corey Carston
• Pork Sausage Rolls by Richard Hingston

Test Fires: We evaluate...

• Ironclad Pans Legacy Bundle
• Straight Arrows and Fast Bullets – Peter Hill’s new book