Land purchase connects Abel Tasman and Kahurangi national parks

Abel Tasman and Kahurangi national parks are now connected by a block of land purchased by the Department of Conservation.

Associate Conservation Minister Nicky Wagner said the 169ha, bought through the government’s Nature Heritage Fund for $275,000, had high ecological value and will be added to Abel Tasman National Park. The new block of land means that the two national parks are now linked by a corridor of legallyprotected land on Takaka Hill.

The acquired land borders Abel Tasman National Park to its north and its southern boundary adjoins Takaka Hill Scenic Reserve. This reserve is next to the Harwood QEII Covenant-protected private land alongside Kahurangi National Park.

It is being managed by DOC as scenic reserve while the process of adding it to Abel Tasman National Park is completed.

Wagner said the protected areas would now form ‘‘a scenic skyline of continuous native forest’’ on the crest of the Pikikiruna Range and Takaka Hill.

The Nature Heritage Fund is also purchasing an adjoining 43-hectare block from the same landowner, which contain the majority of a significant threatened plant species found on the land.

‘‘These parcels of land contain diverse and rare ecosystems. Nearly half the land is covered in original forest and vegetation, and more than 200 native plant species grow there, including species only found locally or in the wider northwest Nelson area,’’ Wagner said.

Original to¯tara and mataı¯ trees are also scattered through the mixed broadleaf species forest regrown on the marble terrain where forest had been cleared.

This geology contains many of threatened plant species, including shovel mint, bamboo tussock, native germander, limestone ko¯whai and limestone ma¯hoe.

The Nature Heritage Fund is a DOC-administered body established in 1990 for buying land which has significant ecological or landscape value.

Since its inception the fund has protected over 341,880ha.

The news of the additional land has been welcomed by members of Project Janszoon, a privately funded initiative working alongside DOC to address the ecological restoration of the Abel Tasman.

‘‘There is now the exciting prospect of joining up the work being done in both the Abel Tasman and Kahurangi national parks by a natural area corridor which will become an important ecological link,’’ project director Devon McLean said.