Wilderness put off until 1982

Press, 1 December 1978, Page 13

Wilderness put off until 1982

Bv

OLIVER RIDDELL

The establishment of a wilderness area in northwest Nelson has been postponed for five sears bv the Minister of Lands (Mr V. S. Young), but prospects for a wilderness area on the western watershed of Nelson, between the Karamca and Heaphy Rivers, look quite bright. it has been proposed that a total area of 83,000 ha (about 207.000 acres), more than one-fifth of the total area of the north-west Nelson State Forest Park, should be set aside. The area rises steeply from near sea level to the Gunner Downs at 1000 metres and the Tasman Mountains at 2000 metres. It includes the main tributaries of the Heaphy and Aorere Rivers and the tributaries of the Karamea River, the ugly, beautiful, and roaring Lion Rivers, It is remote, untracked.

and has no hut accommodation. No logging has taken place and all mining has ceased. The proposed area includes some softwoods at lower levels but most of it is beech forest, giving way to the higher tussock fields. Manv slips caused by the 1929 Murchison earthquake are slowly being revegetated by native species. The bird and insect life is interesting; there are hares and stoats, red deer are kept to low numbers by hunting pressures, and opossums are being reduced in number. The area contains some of the oldest rock strata in New Zealand. It is surrounded by forest park and there is a- proposed ecological area along the coastline and the wildlife refuge at Gouland Downs. It is separated from the management zone in the Opanana Basin by the protection forests of the Fenian Range. There have been two opposing points of view

over the wilderness area — those who maintain the southern boundary -hould be extended south to include the Karamea Ro er (as a potential wild and scenic river) and to the summit of the Garibaldi Range, and those who maintain that potentially valuable mineral deposits in the area should not be locked away. It is now widely accepted that wilderness area status would preclude mineral exploitation But many feel that the mineral traces found have not been prospected thoroughly enough to be sure that none are commercial This is why the proposed area only runs south as lar as the Karamea River, and why the five-year delay has been introduced over the remaining area The Karamea was excluded because extensive prospecting for copper, lead, zinc, nickel, coball,

molybdenum, chromium, and the platinoids con tinues along the north bank of the river and as far south as Mount Radiant. This prospecting ha* not so far shown any commercially attractive deposits within the proposed wilderness area The fate of the Karamea River itself will attract wide interest. It is being investigated for "wild river” status and it seems appropriate to many people to have it included in the wilderness area now. Then there is the much talked-about Karamea-Col-lingwood road, its proposed path would run north of the wilderness area. Some would like the wilderness area extended north, blocking off the possibility of a road. This is not likely to happen m view of local feelings about the road Conservationists will have to rely on the shortage of reading money and the difficulty of the terrain, together, to preclude the mad.