The Green Room
The new Tussockland Conservation Park has been welcomed by Forest and Bird.
It has also been welcomed by the Minister of Conservation and by the Mayor of Central Otago Dr Malcolm McPherson because of the economic benefits that the Park will bring to the region as a magnet for high country and wilderness recreation and tourism.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/politics/105939/new-central-otago-conservation-park-opened
The boundaries of the 65,000ha Oteake Conservation Park were amended by the Government last year to exclude a 195ha area over the Hawkdun deposit.
The area that has been excluded from the new park is the Homestead DOC Campground and Oteake Conservation Park entrance and DOC information panels at the top of the Hawkdun Runs Road close to the district council road bridge across the beautiful Manuherikia River.
The vegetation here is probably some of the lowest altitude part of the new Park and one of the few parts of the new Park that isn't steep and high altitude mountain land. It includes native shrublands of matagouri and Olearia and magnificent red tussockland.
Mining would have still been permitted in the Oteake Conservation Park because unlike all National Parks it is not covered by the protection of Schedule 4 of the Conservation Act.
However last year, Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee demanded and got from Cabinet their agreement that this area would be excluded from the proposed Oteake Conservation Park. It still remains Conservation Land. Brownlee's argument was that the mining industry had persuaded him that the Hawkdun tussock was a test of the National Government's integrity and committment to the mining industry. The industry apparently told the Government something to the effect that if this area became part of the Park they might as well exit New Zealand and move en masse to Australia.
I would have said farewell to the blackmailers but Gerry Brownlee and his colleagues apparently caved in to the mining industry and this lovely area was excluded from the Park. It would be fascinating to see what view the Minister of Conservation and DOC officials presented on the matter. My suspicion is that their arguments weren't pressed too forcefully. They would have caved in so that they could at least still get all the steep mountainlands of the rest of the area protected as a Park.
This is very reminiscent of how our original National Parks were created. Politicians identified areas that weren't wanted for logging of for farming and agreed that the rest, the "useless lands" might as well become National Parks. The conservation movement then spent a lot of the last half of last century trying to correct the serious lack of lowland ecosystems in our National Park network caused by these stupid political expediency decisions made right at the Park's establishment. Often this simply wasn't possible. The lowland forests had been logged and cleared.
The Southland Times yesterday summarised some of the lignite issues in Oteake Park.
There are abundant lignite deposits on the Southland Plains under dairy farms near Edenvale. Much of the land is owned by Solid Energy and others and leased back to the dairy farmers. Even if they need to mine lignite (and many of us would be very opposed to this dirty bulk CO2 producing industry) it is possible to do it under exotic grasslands and farmland rather than by destroying magnificent tall tussock grassland in a heritage landscape.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/business/3695877/Mining-casts-shadow-over-park
According to the article from the Herald that I posted here yesterday about the lignite at St Bathans (Oteake C P), they reckon Hawkdun's just one of five areas they will be considering. Seems they've been thinking about all this for some time!
The Park Opening was a great event.
If the Park is to be a long term success though, there will need to be constant vigilance by the public and DOC Rangers. They will have to make sure that the integrity of the Park is not degraded by trespassing stock, by lignite mining and uncontrolled off road vehicles and other threats.
Although there has been a lot of public concern about lignitie mining here, this is only a distant possibility. By contrast, unauthorised grazing is a present day reality and will subtely (and not so subtely) destroy the natural values of the Park.
Immediately after the opening ceremony, when most of the participants returned south to their homes, we drove 2 km north from the opening ceremony site along the Home Hills Run Council Road. Here we discovered about 20 merino sheep trespassing well inside the Park boundary.
We continued another 9 km along this road and forded the Manuherikia River because the bridge was out of order. We drove on the Hawkdun Runs Council Road that runs alongside the 195 hectares of public conservation land immediately west of the Manuherikia Bridge. This is a wonderful red tussock valley floor grassland that was excluded from the Oteake Conservation Park after objections from the Minister of Energy. It is all signposted with DOC recreation signs and all the maps show this to be DOC land where stock are supposed to be totally excluded.
Here we discovered around 200 trespassing Angus cattle. These had free access throughout the 195 hectares, the DOC gateway to Oteake Park, DOC's Homestead Campground and information displays and more distantly all of the Oteake Park. Are the neighbouring farmers trying to get free grazing when they don't thik DOC is looking?
Here are some photos of these areas:
Oteaka Park Images
Cowpat_In_Front_of_Oteake_Park_Sign.JPG (47.8 KB, 2 downloads) 1 year old Part_195ha_of_Public_Conservation_Land.jpg (47.9 KB, 3 downloads) 1 year old Hut_Creek_Oteake_Park.JPG (120.1 KB, 2 downloads) 1 year old Trespassing_Merino_Sheep_Oteake_Park.JPG (43.8 KB, 1 downloads) 1 year old Oteake_Park_Opening.JPG (108.9 KB, 1 downloads) 1 year old This is the core of the 195 hectares excluded from the Park because it has lignite beneath it
Part_195ha_of_Public_Conservation_Land.jpg (42.4 KB, 2 downloads) 1 year old Should've turned the sheep into mutton chops!
Looks a beautiful high country golden/red tussock area ! Thanks for the background info.
Hope you will send those photos to MinCon Kate Wilkinson and ask her what actions the Department will take immediately to move on (or seize!?) those sheep and cattle, and what they intend to do in the long term to prevent further grazing incursions ??
At this link on the DOC website is an analysis of submissions on the park proposal, and in the Executive Summary a suggestion that there are "transitional grazing commitments" that may not yet have expired ?? See quote below.
http://www.doc.govt.nz/upload/Getting%20involved/proposed-oteake-submissions-analysis.pdf
"Common among the opponents of the park is the contention that unlike the previous extensive pastoral management of the area management of the park by the department is not an efficient and effective use of this resource. This is their entitled opinion, however, the formation of the park has been through a combination of tenure reviews of Crown pastoral lands and strategic purchases and both these mechanisms are consistent with statute and Government policy. Once transitional grazing commitments have expired, ongoing grazing within Oteake will be managed via each CMS by the relevant Area Managers." Pg 2 Analysis of Submissions on the Proposed Oteake Conservation Park, DOC Otago Conservancy, August 2008.
The report makes very interesting reading especially regarding the lignite deposits and it seems at odds with some of what is said, that such a large area was eventually excluded from the park.
Apparently there are a lot of stock trespass problems into the new Park, particularly at the south end near Naseby. DOC is doing its best to sort the problems out. But it is really good for the concerned public to back DOC up so that DOC staff know that they are not on their own in trying to get rid of the trespassing stock from inside the Park.
I have checked the legal agreement that covers the purchase by Nature Heritage Fund/LINZ of the Michael Peak block shown in the photos above. I have also raised it with the Conservator. There is no remaining transition period for grazing stock here. All permitted grazing expired here years ago.
There is a shared agreement with the farming neighbours for joint use/ownership of the good standard cattle yards that are located only on one small corner of the 195 hectares of DOC managed land that is underlaid by lignite. The stockyard is close to the County Road and there is no way that this agreement can then allow the users to put their cows throughout the whole DOC block.
Joint use of a cattle yards must not be allowed to be the excuse for farming neighbours to then push their cows to graze within the DOC managed 195 hectares, the Homestead Campground or all the adjoining Oteake Conservation Park.
The cattle must go!!
Good to know re no transition grazing ! And so it should be. Absolutely agree with you that the cattle (and sheep) must go !
Would it help if eg. Forest and Bird CEO Mike Britton, wrote/emailed the Naseby DOC, praising and supporting their attempts to remove the livestock from the Oteake ?
We do so much lobbying, it's easy to forget what a difference a little positive encouragement makes too !
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