Leaders in farming, forestry and conservation are calling on whoever wins the election to fund control of exploding numbers of browsing pests like deer, goats and wallabies.
COVID-19's impact on hunting has meant pest numbers have grown rapidly on conservation land and now they're spilling onto farmland.
'Deer chaos' is one way to describe an undergrowth stripped bare by deer - and it's happening across the country.
"Deer, pigs, goats, wallabies, they've exploded in numbers in many places around New Zealand and they need to be sorted the same as any other pest," Forest and Bird CEO Nicola Toki said.
They're spilling onto farmers' pastures where they eat as much grass in a day as two sheep.
"We've teamed up with Forest and Bird because we've seen the massive damage these animals are doing to on-farm conservation, and to our national parks as well," Federated Farmers national president Wayne Langford said.
Undergrowth slows rainfall runoff so when it's eaten away, erosion and flooding is worse.
"Without the recruitment of seedlings, that natural asset, we're putting our communities further downstream in danger," Toki said.
Monitoring from the Department of Conservation (DoC) two years ago showed feral goats, pigs and deer roam 82 percent of DoC land - up from 63 percent in 2013.
National's proposed a Minister for Hunting and Fishing but isn't committing to any funding.
"I'm very happy for the Minister of Hunting and Fishing to engage with the sector," leader Christopher Luxon said.
But there are mixed views on whether that'll help.
"We're somehow elevating these animals in status to game or trophy animals when they are having such a devastating impact from both an economic and environmental perspective," Toki said.
"So whether we have a minister for hunting or not, what we need to do is get rid of these pests. They're causing major problems and we need to get onto them straight away," Langford said.
"If you've got some ministerial attention you're much more likely to get sustainable funding," added Game Animal Council chair Grant Dodson.
Labour is non-committal on targeted funding.
"I'm not making a specific commitment but we have an absolute commitment to pest eradication and supporting those who are doing that work," leader Chris Hipkins said.
The Green Party agrees with the call for increased funding to bring down numbers of deer, pigs and goats while ACT says it'll slash bureaucracy to allow more hunters to hunt freely and address issues they have accessing DoC land across private property.
Hunters agree that numbers need to be brought down. But not too much.
"Modest numbers of healthy game animals is what we're targeting. Now is there a conflict with Forest and Bird? Well yeah they're always gonna want a few less and we want a few more," Dodson said.
But hunters, farmers, foresters and conservationists all agree - ongoing funding is needed to bring these forest-gobbling pests under control.
