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In an endeavour to speed up the work of freeing the vast areas of forest in the Nelson conservancy of such pests as deer, pigs, and opossums, the Forest Service recently dropped carrot impregnated with 1080 poison over the Rai and Golden Downs forests. At the Rai about 10,000 acres were covered, and at the Downs, about 22,000 acres. In all, about 150 tons of specially-grown carrots were dropped. At the Rai the aircraft operated off this rather hazardous airstrip (above) - about 300 yards long with quite a rise at one end and a sheer drop of about 60ft at the other.

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Don Cummings, mixing batch of 1080, uses face mask, takes no chances

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Denny Atkinson took off and landed about 150 times to cover the Rai

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Coming in to land, the aircraft has to negotiate practically sheer bluff

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Deadly dinner for deer

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Some idea of the rise in the landing strip can be gauged from this pic.

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Carrots were chopped up and mixed with the poison in one operation

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Frequently, at take-off, the heavilyladen aircraft dropped below the level of the landing strip before gaining height