Stuff Digital Edition

How did mining help these poor snails?

I aminterested in how Patrick Phelps (‘ Win-win’ from

new mines, Sept 30) can claim mining is good for conservation.

Eight hundred nearly-extinct Powelliphanta snails were removed from their natural habitat in 2006, to make way for amining company; were stuffed in icecream containers and shoved in a fridge. The snails’ habitat was destroyed. The snails then died five years later, in 2011, due to a fridge malfunction.

How does this make mining good for conservation? If those snails had been cats or dogs, there would have been a huge outcry, court cases and fines.

The Denniston Plateau is an amazing landscape with 400-year-old native trees that are only 1-2m high because of the weather. There may be some pest control benefits but mining has so destroyed the habitat there is nothing left to save from the pests. Surely, we can increase the pest control budget to protect what is found only in New Zealand. Catharine Underwood, Brooklyn [abridged]

Opinion

en-nz

2022-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282295324081947

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