Eruption costs DoC $0.25m

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 671, 28 January 1997, Page 5

Eruption costs DoC $0.25m

Dollars for DoC are down in the Tongariro/ Taupo conservancy by an estimated $250,000 thanks to the Mt Ruapehu eruption last winter. Concession dollars for the Department of Conservation was to have come from saies for Tongariro

National Park operators including skifields and other businesses; the department' s camping grounds at Whakapapa and Tokaanu. Extra costs of monitoring the eruption also contributed to the financial burden. Regional Conservator Paul Green said about

$148,000 had been budgeted for in concession payments, and that had been a low figure because of losses during the 1995 eruption when the department lost about $94,000 in concession revenue As well last year, the department showed an initial loss of $120,000 on budg-

eted figures for income on its own businesses at Whakapapa and Tokaanu. But Mr Green said income from these two sources improved dramatically in the past two months because of the region's Bounce Back campaign, and the conservancy had picked up $50,000. Extra costs from the eruption, from helicopter use to checking water supplies and park hut safety and signs warning the public of eruption dangers, accounted for a further $20,000. Mr Green said the conservancy had been given a one-off grant of $170,000 by its head office to offset the losses.

"As well, we have had to make other cuts, largely to do with recreational maintenance, such as works on roads, tracks, huts, signs and fencing," he said. He said the conservancy also looked like making a loss of up to $100,000 on the saies of trout fishing licences because of the eruption. But anglers were now coming back to the region in large numbers and the conservancy was likely to make its budgeted $1.1 njillion in fisheries income. Mr Green said the conservancy had a total budget of $7.1 million, of which $3.7 million was from revenue earned in the area.