[shanec]

Public views sought on proposed park

The Department of Conservation is looking for the public’s view on a proposed 90,000 hectare conservation park in the Kaikoura Ranges.

The land is currently under Department Conservation management and would be amalgamated into the park, to be called Ka Whata Tu O Rakihouia Conservation Park. It includes mountain and high country landscape in the Clarence Reserve, the Mt Fyffe area and land which was passed onto DOC after the tenure review of Muzzle Station.

Public submissions on the proposal are being invited between now and April 2, with a public hearing scheduled in Kaikoura after that date.

DOC Nelson/Marlborough Conservator Neil Clifton said the proposed park would not change people’s use of the area.

“It enables identification and management of the individual areas as one distinctive unit,” he said.

The area was one of high ecological value, Mr Clifton said, and includes various threatened native wildlife species such as skinks, three giant weta species and the speargrass weevil along with rare plants.

Mr Clifton said recreational activities such as horse riding, four-wheel driving, tramping, hunting and mountain biking could still take place in the park which already has a number of huts and tracks.

Ka Whata Tu O Rakihouia means the standing food stores of Rakihouia, a name which Mr Clifton said was chosen in consultation with Te Rununga o Kaikoura which supported the new proposal.

DOC South Marlborough Area Manager Dave Hayes said the proposal followed a rejected proposal made in 2002 to turn an area in the Seaward and Inland Kaikoura ranges into a national park. Opposition from a number of groups meant the proposal never made it to the public submissions stage. Mr Hayes said the concern expressed by people was that the national park would curtail activities such as vehicle access and bringing dogs into the area. Since then, DOC was asked to investigate the idea of turning the area into a nature reserve.

Mr Hayes said the proposal was able to go ahead since the tender process of Muzzle Station, which tied the reserves together, was finalised.

Depending on the number and type of submissions made, Mr Hayes said the hearing process could be completed by May.

More information about the park can be found on http://www.doc.govt.nz.

Link is at: http://www.doc.govt.nz/templates/page.aspx?id=45743

[Author]

Posts