Whirinaki Te Pua-a-Tane Conservation Park lease application
Hi Team,
Hopefully most of you would have received this notification via NZDA. I thought i'd get this post up for those that haven't seen it. Hopefully i've got it in the right area.
In short there is an application to use part of the Whirinaki forest for a tourism venture.
I'm still reading through the info. The one thing that standards out is that a sole person will be exclusively benefiting from public land, while preventing others (hunters) using it. I would feel differently if there was potential for a whole community to benefit, but for a single person (except a couple of employees) seems a little off.
Here is the summary from the DOC website:
Summary of proposal
To establish a tourism development site in Whirinaki Te Pua-A-Tane (Forest Park) to support walking and mountain biking activity in the Park . The applicant is a current concessionaire and holds a lease/licence concession 41768-OTH for land and accommodation structures in the same forest park that expires in 2046 (Okahu Valley site).
Structures proposed at the site are:
10 sleeping huts (wharemoe)
Kitchen/dining/recreation hall and staff quarters facility (wharekai)
A helicopter drop zone is proposed near the site for use during the construction phase and for future provisioning.
A short section of new walking track is proposed to provide all-weather access to the site and has an overall length of 1200 metres.
An on-site sewage treatment and disposal system is proposed to service the site.
The intention is to operate the tourism facility for up to nine months of the year (i.e. from September till May annually).
The tourism operation will accommodate up to 20 clients, 2 camp management staff and 2 track guides. However, a lease area larger than the structures is applied for in the event additional structures are required to provide up to 25 clients. The applicant’s guiding concession on nearby tracks has a limit of 25 clients per day.
The applicant intends to engage a warden to provide security and undertake basic maintenance during the off-season. The warden will be an experienced hunter whose brief will be to target female deer to assist in forest rejuvenation. Human resources are intended to be offered to the predator control programme.
Vegetation will be removed as part of the development and on-going minor trimming of vegetation will occur for maintenance and safety reasons.
Anyway here is the link and you can make your own call if you support or oppose this. If you don't support it please send through a submission, it doesn't take much.
https://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved...dings-limited/
Thanks
