Tenure Reviews on Nevis Valley Lease Lands

The hugely important backcountry fishery, the Nevis River in Otago is under threat and anglers need to speak out about proposed changes to pastoral tenure leases to ensure this iconic high country fishery is not lost forever.

Submissions on the ‘Ben Nevis’ and ‘Craigroy’ pastoral lease tenure review proposals closed 30th November 2009.

Further information on each proposal can be requested from.

Contact: David Paterson

Phone: +64 (03) 479-3653

Fax +64 (03) 474-0389

Email: david.paterson@darrochvaluations.co.nz

Fish and Game Otago are preparing and circulating further advice to those planning to submit. See Save the Nevis at the Fish and Game website.

Tenure review, under the Crown Pastoral Lands Act involves the reclassification of Crown lease land into either Crown conservation land or freehold land based on an assessment of ‘significant inherent values’ (recreational amenity, flora and fauna, landscapes etc) and recommendations on how best to protect them.

The Act expresses a preference for retention in Crown ownership as reserve land where there are ‘significant inherent values’.

The proposals for Ben Nevis and Craigroy are based on retention by the Crown of just over 11,000 hectares of mostly high altitude land, to be managed for conservation by DOC, and the transfer about 8000 hectares of mostly valley floor on either side of the river as freehold land to be passed to Pioneer Generation Limited.

Fish and Game considers the proposals are a very bad deal as far as the public are concerned as the proposal helps facilitate industrial scale hydro development in the all important heritage resource areas around Queenstown and Cromwell.

The high altitude land on the properties is not at obvious risk but the valley floor is at clear risk from hydro development once tenure review is complete.

The proposals also perpetuate an imbalance in tenure review outcomes throughout the South Island high country that has seen large areas of high altitude land go into Crown reserves but has neglected lower altitude areas with important conservation and recreation and access values.

Covenants are proposed to protect significant inherent values on land earmarked for freeholding but in these cases they are designed to be hollow shells and move aside in the face of hydro development. In effect they offer no protection at all to the most obvious threat.

The area concerned provides habitat for the nationally vulnerable Smeagol galaxias, a rare native fish only found in the Nevis valley, as well as being part of the historically important Nevis goldfield.

Hydro dams would also impact severely on the nationally renowned trout fishery, the catchment supports and on significant landscape values.

It is important interested individuals and organisations don’t confuse these tenure review proposals with Fish and Game’s application to amend the Kawarau Water Conservation Order.

While both processes deal with the importance of natural and recreational values present in the valley, the conservation order has a focus on water related values and the tenure reviews focus on those natural and recreational values present on the two leasehold properties. Of course both sets of values overlap to a large degree but it is important to tailor submissions to fit the different processes

The tribunal hearings on the Fish and Game application to amend the water conservation order and prohibit damming on the Nevis River reconvened in late August 2009.

Rebuttal evidence was presented by Fish and Game along with closing legal submissions. The tribunal then adjourned the hearing until February 2010 to allow preparation of further evidence on indigenous flora and fauna in the valley. Evidence from Forest and Bird and others at the original June hearings flagged the possibility of outstanding botanical values on the valley floor and in response the tribunal requested additional expert evidence in that area.

Anglers say Nevis valley tenure review flawed

The Press

Fish and Game New Zealand is targeting the Government over what it says is the misguided and runaway tenure review of a Central Otago river valley.

Lands Minister Richard Worth can expect a letter from the fishing and hunting advocacy group today outlining what it says are flaws in the tenure review proposals for the Ben Nevis and Craigroy stations beside the Nevis River.

Fish and Game Otago and the Department of Conservation are at odds over the future of the valley close to Lake Wakatipu and between the Hector and Garvie mountains and over a plan to flood part of it for hydro-power generation...