Extension to Mt Cook park proposed
A move to extend Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park’s boundary to include two ‘‘important’’ braided riverbeds has been given the thumbs up by an environment advocacy group.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) will soon talk with stakeholders to extend the national park’s boundary to include two riverbeds, the Tasman and Godley rivers, and some adjoining conservation land.
DOC says the move will protect important glacial-fed ecosystems and give them greater legislative protection and the news has been welcomed by Forest & Bird.
The department’s Canterbury Aoraki Conservation Board chairman, Dr Mick Abbott, confirmed this week it would start talking to stakeholders about the extension, as part of the Aoraki/Mt Cook Management Plan review.
The suggestion to include the riverbeds, and some adjoining conservation land, was included in a set of recommendations in the Canterbury (Waitaha) Conservation Management Strategy (CMS), published by DOC.
Both riverbeds, on crown land managed by Land Information New Zealand (Linz), did not have conservation status, he said.
Each site, including river and land, was about 15 to 18 kilometres long and three to four kilometres wide. They held significance, both nationally and internationally, because they were so unique, Abbott said.
It also strengthened DOC’s theme of providing protection of all land ‘‘mountains to sea’’.
New Zealand’s back country had robust protection in place, Abbott said. However, the extension could bring more protection to braided rivers which were ‘‘increasingly important in value’’.
‘‘If you look at them, they are absolutely magnificent.’’
The proposed extensions follow pre-consultation meetings held last year to allow people to have input into the national park’s 10-year management plan review, undertaken concurrently with the review of the Westland Tai Poutini National Park Plan.
The park, which covers 70,728 hectares and comprises a 19-peak mountain range, including Aoraki/Mt Cook, is managed by DOC.
The park extends along the main dividing ridge of the Southern Alps for some 65 kilometres and shares a common boundary with Westland/Tai Poutini National Park for some 40km.
It occupied the head of the Tasman and Godley valleys, where glaciers drain into the rivers and lakes of the vast inland basin of the Mackenzie Country.
A DOC spokeswoman said the extension was still a suggestion at this stage and there was ‘‘a lot of work to be done’’.
If extended, the park area would increase to include the ‘‘important’’ glacial-fed, fresh water river ecosystems.
‘‘The rivers would be afforded greater legal protection under the National Parks Act,’’ she said.
They were being considered for their high ecological values and significance. Such a process would be a significant undertaking, and would require close consultation with Ngai Tahu, and other affected or interested parties. ‘‘This would be a two-stage process involving Linz, DOC, and the New Zealand Conservation Authority.’’
She was unable to say how much the process would cost, but said costs would arise from transferring land from Linz to DOC, and any consultation processes.