River protection work in Marlborough reserve after ancient trees fall stuff.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stuff.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Jennifer Eder15:50, May 04 2021
The country’s biggest farm can be a dangerous and unforgiving place in winter, users warn as a charitable trust legally challenges its seasonal closure. The publicly-owned Molesworth Recreation Reserve covers 180,000 hectares of tussock land, rivers and mountains between Marlborough’s Awatere Valley, Hanmer Springs, Tasman District and the Kaikōura ranges. It is managed by the Department of Conservation and leased for farming by Landcorp. Acheron Rd is the main route through the station, a scenic but challenging 207-kilometre drive from south Marlborough to Hanmer Springs, which closes every year from April to October. Charitable trust Public Access New Zealand (PANZ) wants to end the closure, claiming it is illegal to close a public road except in limited circumstances such as an extreme weather event. PANZ filed legal proceedings against Land Information New Zealand last week, seeking a declaration Acheron Rd and others in the vast reserv
Local resident Malcolm Warnes was irritated to watch the situation worsening and no work undertaken to stop the ongoing erosion. “Those 400-year-old trees are falling down because there has been nothing done for years by the people who are responsible for the care and guardianship of that forest. “It is a precious gem that is slowly being destroyed, and I personally think that is entirely unacceptable,” Warnes said.
Scott Hammond/Stuff
This tōtara is undermined by ongoing riverbank erosion. DOC was looking into the issue in 2018, as a result of flood events “over the last couple of years”, although local users of the forest say trees have been falling over for longer than that.
Scott Hammond/Stuff
Old growth patches, like those at Marlborough’s Onamalutu Scenic Reserve, are the last bastion of ancient forests, says a botany professor.
An ancient forest with a lineage that stretches back to when New Zealand was part of the supercontinent Gondwana has been losing trees to erosion for years. Podocarp trees at Marlborough’s Onamalutu Scenic Reserve have been lying in the Ōhinemahuta River since July, but they are just the latest to fall victim to the riverbank’s ongoing erosion. Emails seen by
Stuff show the Department of Conservation was looking into fallen trees in the reserve in 2018, as a result of flood events “over the last couple of years”.