Horseshoe Lake plan released

Press, 4 March 1982, Page 18

Horseshoe Lake plan released

A draft management plan for the Christchurch City Council’s unusual Horseshoe Lake Reserve has been released for public comment. Depending on reaction to the plan during the next month, the council might hold a hearing to consider objections and suggestions. The Burwood wilderness area is already being developed for recreational use on both sides of the lake, which serves as a ponding area for water from northern suburbs. A walkway system is being extended to reach Burwood Park, and might extend from a New Brighton Road access next to the Dudley Creek diversion project pumping station hear Kerrs Reach. Part of the reserve was set aside as a wildfowl sanctuary in 1904. In pre-Euro-

pean times the Horseshoe Lake area was the site of an unfortified Maori pa called Te Oranga. It was a base for seasonal food-gathering activities. The Maoris called the lake Waikakariki (green waters). In recent years thick willow growth has been removed from the Lake Terrace Road side of the lake, and material dredged by the Christchurch Drainage Board has helped to build up the bank, which is now grassed. Under the management plan most of the reserve would be classified as a scenic reserve. That area just east of Horseshoe Lake Road, where a B.M.X. (cross-country bicycle) track was set up on earth mounds last year, would become a recreational reserve.