Huge Addition to Fiordland National Park

Forest and Bird, Issue 291, 1 February 1999, Page 8

Huge Addition to Fiordland National Park

DoC Southland

Tom O'Connor,

huge area of South Island lowland forest has finally been given permanent legal protection after years of protracted discussion and negotiation. The addition of Waitutu forest, west of Tuatapere, to the Fiordland National Park puts 46,000 hectares of virgin forest under permanent protection after 20 years of debate and the constant threat of logging. The massive area — more than twice the size of Abel Tasman National Park — includes 40 kilometres of spectacular coastline. Government funding will provide for a new walkway into the region. The area has survived, largely unmodified, for a number of reasons. The harsh southern winters, high annual rainfall and

difficult access made Western Southland one of the least attractive areas for early settlers. To the north lay the wild and rugged Takitimu mountains and the remote wilderness of Fiordland. The steep terrain and extremely difficult access saved these areas from the axe and the match during the early years of European settlement. They are now almost all that is left of the once vast southern lowland forests and even then they are modified by possums, deer, goats, and pigs. Introduced stoats, ferrets, cats and rats have also had a serious impact on several native bird species in Waitutu. The area passed into Crown ownership as one of the major land purchases from Ngai Tahu in

the middle of last century. In 1904 the government set aside 940,000 hectares of Fiordland as a public reserve. Most of it was still unexplored. The park as we know it today was formally constituted in 1952 and has since been expanded to 1,210,000 hectares. Waitutu, however, to the southeast of Fiordland was originally excluded from the reserve. Some of the coastal area had been logged and the last operation, by the Marlborough Timber Company, wound up in the 1920s. The area known as Waitutu then came under the control of the Department of Forestry. The forest, now known as the Waitutu Conservation Area, lies between the national park and the 2171-hectare block of the Waitutu Incorporation, a Maori-owned forest now managed as if it were part of the national park. To the east of Waitutu is another area of South Island Landless Native Land known as the West Rowallan Block. This area was logged in the early days and still remains in private ownership. The larger area of Waitutu has never been logged and contains what is believed to be the largest surviving population of South Island mohua (yellowhead). Karearea (NZ falcon) are also known to inhabit the region. The forest is home to the largest known population of South Island kaka. Its trees include tall podocarps and beech. Public access and enjoyment of the area has been enhanced by a Government decision to support efforts of a charitable trust to establish a new tramping track in the area. The Tuatapere Hump Track Trust has received a cheque for $250,000 from the Department of Tourism, with a similar amount of assistance in the form of time and expertise from the Department of Conservation to be made available over the next three years. The trust has been granted a conservation concession to add 21 kilometres of new track to the

existing 32 km-long Hump Track in the Waitutu Conservation Area and to construct two 40-bed huts. The new track will link with the existing South Coast Track to provide a three-day hike from some of Southland’s most extensive remaining beech forest to the open tops of southern Fiordland. The trust will provide guided walks but the public will be free to walk the track without guides and have access to the huts. —