Ideas for Molesworth’s future
People are happy to share the country’s largest high country farm with visitors, as long as the natural landscape and historic buildings can be protected.
More than 4500 people have offered ideas about the future of Molesworth Station, which covers 180,000 hectares of mountains, river valleys and tussocks in south Marlborough and North Canterbury.
Those ideas include a museum, a visitor centre and campgrounds, volunteer conservation groups to restore native plants, and guided tours to educate people about history and conservation. The Department of Conservation has released a summary of the responses with Landcorp Farming Ltd’s lease is set to expire in June 2020.
Most of the people who contributed had visited at least once, to ‘‘get away from reality and enjoy the views’’, and go hunting, swimming, fishing and hiking ‘‘with family and friends away from busy lives in the city’’.
Others did photography and painting, army exercises, mountaineering and cross-country skiing, or back-country flying.
More than half considered the native plants and animals, natural landscapes and waterways ‘‘very important’’.
A majority were happy for farming to continue, with farm managers working alongside DOC as caretakers of the land, minimising fire risk and controlling pests, such as wilding pines, broom, gorse, rabbits, geese, goats and didymo.
However, they also said sustainable farming practices should be used, such as keeping stock away from waterways.
Some said high country farming was a historic practice, and Molesworth was home to historic farm buildings, bridges, equipment, maps and trails from early settlers. The station provided a way to preserve traditional farming practices, and train young shepherds and farmers.
One person suggested converting a historic building into a museum.
Others suggested using government funding, volunteer labour, farm profits and tourist charges to preserve historic sites and buildings.
Many were concerned about the use of aerial pest control poison 1080, and wanted more funding for research into better pest control methods.
Some people called for more indigenous plantings to protect against erosion.
About 17 per cent considered farming incompatible with conservation, and were concerned about water quality and carbon dioxide emissions. Some said Molesworth should be preserved as a national park and left to ‘‘do its own thing’’, or replanted and returned to indigenous forest.
Community groups and businesses could help, such as local nurseries growing plants, and signs could be used to educate visitors about natural species, submitters said.
DOC said it was taking the public’s preferences into consideration. It was working in partnership with Te Ru¯ nanga o Kaiko¯ura, the Nelson Marlborough Conservation Board and the Molesworth Steering Committee to determine Molesworth’s future management.