Napier man Clayton Freeman is stunned the Conservation Department has taken him to court for trapping possums

A man being prosecuted for trapping possums in a forest park thought he was doing the Conservation Department a favour.

Napier man Clayton Freeman, 48, has been charged with "pursuing animals in a conservation area" without a permit.

Freeman was camping with a friend at in the Kaweka Forest Park, west of Hastings, in August and the alleged offending occurred between the 9th and 11th.

"My mate was possuming in the area and showed me how to do it. I liked the idea of it so I went and bought some traps. I went up the road a bit from him and did it. I didn't know you needed a permit to trap possums. I laid 22 traps. To be honest I didn't think I was even inside the Forest Park. Now the Department of Conservation is prosecuting me," he said.

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The leg traps he used were the same as those used by professional trappers, and he is stunned that he has been charged.

The department considers possums "one of the greatest threats to our natural environment". They eat native bush, insects and the eggs of native birds.

Freeman is also charged with taking plants without authority. This relates to his cutting some dead kanuka branches for firewood.

He said Conservation Department staff called him in to their offices and interviewed him about the allegations in late August.

A few days later he was back at the offices to pick up a three-month trapping permit the department had granted him. The permits are free.

"I'd have thought they'd be happy. They want the possums gone and I was happy to kill them at no cost to them," he said.

"And as for the wood, it was all dead stuff I cut down with my chainsaw. Fair enough if I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry and I won't do it again, but I don't know why they've charged me. I could be jailed for up to two years or fined $100,000. I think they might think I cut down a lot more than I did. I'd have thought a warning would be enough," Freeman said.

He sold the fur from the possums. Over the three months he had the permit he was trapping 3-4 days a week and estimates he killed about 100 possums and made "a few hundred bucks".

"It was a hell of a lot of work for not that much money. But that's a lot of trees that were saved. And I was catching quite a few rats too," he said.

Freeman appeared in Napier District Court on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to both charges.

He will reappear in court next month.

A spokesman for the department said "there are clear processes designed to protect both the public and native wildlife from unauthorised trapping on conservation land" but no further comment would be made while the matter was before the court.

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