Landcorp won’t renew Belmont Park grazing
State farmer Landcorp will leave Belmont Regional Park this year after working the park since it was established 30 years ago.
It took ownership of part of the park from the Department of Lands and Survey in 1986, when the park was established, and has run a sheep and beef breeding operation there.
Landcorp has told the regional council it will not renew its grazing licence when it expires on June 30.
Council parks manager Amanda Cox said the area available for grazing would be reduced by the Transmission Gully Motorway designation and 234 hectares would be retired from farming.
The two areas, 60ha by the motorway and 74ha in the Cannons Creek catchment, would be allowed to revert to native vegetation. The remaining area available for a farming licence would be 1238ha of medium-to-steep hill country.
Landcorp hit the headlines in early 2005, when it tried to sell off Waitangirua Farm, which forms about one third of Belmont Regional Park.
The Hutt-Valley-based Friends of Belmont Regional Park and the Porirua-based Friends of Maara Roa strongly opposed breaking up the park.
In November, the Minister of Conservation, Chris Carter, stepped in and brokered a deal.
The ministry contributed $6.27 million, Welington Regional Council paid $2.8m and Porirua City Council $335,000 to buy the farm, which was vested in the regional council, with Landcorp retained as the farming licensee.
Sylvia Jenkin, a founding member of the Friends of Maara Roa, led the charge against the sale from the Porirua side.
She said Landcorp had run the farm efficiently from an agricultural point of view, but had done nothing for conservation in the park.
The retired farmland could allow her vision for the Maara Roa – Long Gully – reserve to come about in future, she said.
‘‘My long-term dream is having a bush corridor that would meet with Korokoro and would form a harbour-toharbour bush corridor.
It would be unique in New Zealand and would form a passage for the little native birds that follow seasonal food.