High Country Purchased for Public and Nature

Forest and Bird, Issue 310, 1 November 2003, Page 5

High Country Purchased for Public and Nature

large chunk of a highstation in orth Canterbury has been purchased by the Nature Heritage Fund for recreation and conservation. The area of 4000 hectares has been taken out of the Poplars Station near Lewis Pass at a cost of $1.89 million. The land now preserved is almost completely surrounded by Lake Sumner Forest Park, and the Lewis Pass road, State Highway 7, runs through it. The new reserve includes all the land surrounding the HopeKiwi hut and the Upper Hope, Doubtful and Boyle river valleys, all popular tramping areas. Mixed beech forest and shrubland covers much of the newly purchased land, home to numerous native birds including the severely threatened yellowhead/mohua and the great spotted kiwi. ‘This purchase marks another step in ongoing efforts by the

Department of Conservation and the Government to secure some of New Zealand’s iconic high-country landscapes for the public, says the Minister of Conservation, Hon Chris Carter. ‘Protection of the area has come about through cooperation between the landowner and the Nature Heritage Fund, the Minister said. ‘In addition to the sale price, DoC has agreed to erect fencing and signage to direct the public who use the area away from farmland and into the newly purchased open spaces. ‘This arrangement is a classic example of how DoC can work with landowners in the high country to mutual benefit. I hope other farmers who use much of the iconic landscape down the eastern side of the Southern Alps will recognise that working with DoC carries very real opportunities for them, says Mr Carter.