protect it all

I am pleased that the Nature Heritage Fund has created two scenic reserves totalling 189 hectares at Whanganui Inlet near Kaihoka in Golden Bay. They paid the owners half a million. There is a proposal that all rural land on Golden Bay's northwest coast be given protection as an "outstanding natural landscape" but the owners of this sold land disagree with that because they say that, "Outstanding landscape is because of outstanding management" and they require compensation because they have maintained the outstanding landscape by not subdividing it, planting pine trees or neglecting it - I think they have the cart before the horse - the landscape is outstanding because it is outstanding, not because of some temporary owners activities. Neglecting the land, as in not commercialising it, may have been the best thing for it and has certainly helped other blocks that were too inaccessible or too hard to develop.

Nelson Mail

The purchase includes 12ha of unique, northern cedar forest on stabilised dunes adjoining the Kaihoka Lakes Scenic Reserve. The 177ha block to the north has a sequence of indigenous vegetation spanning lowland through to coastal vegetation on a variety of landforms. The larger block has a diverse array of regionally rare plant communities, including salt turfs on coastal cliffs, and others found on low-fertility conglomerate. The salt turfs are nationally rare and contain four plant species that are either nationally threatened or at risk, including native orchids. They also host wildlife like the South Island fernbird and Nelson green gecko.

 If we have to pay then let's pay and get these ecosystems protected.