Trial multiple use assessments of high country hotly debated

Press, 10 December 1982, Page 20

Trial multiple use assessments of high country hotly debated

By

HUGH STRINGLEMAN

South Island High Country runholders are marshalling their objections to three pastoral lands assessment reports in which Lands and Survey Department teams tried to “test the concept" of multiple use lands as defined by the recent Clayton Committee. “This is new ground to us as well." Mr Bill Chalmers, head of the Lands and Survey assessment team for the Lake Tekapo region, told a meeting of runholders and other interested people at Lake Tekapo last week. The recreational, con-' servation and ecological values which defined multiple use lands and reserves were described in the Clayton Report in very broad terms, he said. Mr Chalmers described the department and its officers as the meat in the sandwich, saying that they did not know all the answers, and did not even know all the questions. “If everyone who puts in a submission to the assessment reports also put in constructive suggestions on how to overcome the problems, we would get a lot further.” he said. "It is easy to condemn." The district commissioner of crown lands. Christchurch. Mr L. M. Kenworthy, called last week's meeting to give people an opportunity to express views on the Lake Tekapo trial report. Three assessment reports have been prepared — for Lake Tekapo, the Rock and

Pillar Range near Dunedin and the Awatere River Valley in Marlborough. Widely differing areas of high country were selected to test the concept of the multiple use definition proposed by the Commission on Inquiry into Crown Lands and Leases in Perpetuity, otherwise known as the Clayton Committee. The Minister of Lands. Mr Elworthy, called for the assessment reports before making any decision on accepting the recommendations of the Clayton Report. The team which prepared the Lake Tekapo report was led by Mr Chalmers from Lands’ and Survey, Christchurch. and included Messrs Geoff Holdgate, Bruce Arnold and John Edmonds. The local Land Settlement Committee also has to make a report on the assessment and has included its preliminary comments in the trial assessment report which was published in mid-November. Copies are available from the Land and Survey Department in Christchurch. The eight stations studied for the assessment report — Sawdon, Mt John. Glenmore. Godley Peaks, Lilybank. Mt Gerald. Richmond and Mt Hay — presently cover a total land area of 119,240 ha approximately. Some 20 per cent of this area is proposed under the assessment plan to be designated reserves or multiple use lands (range land and public land). The assessment team recommended that only 594 ha, on Mt John, Lilybank, Glenmore and Godley Peaks, should become permanent reserves. On Mt John the proposed reserved land surrounds Lake Alexandrina, which already has a reserve associated with it. On Glenmore the northern Lake Alexandrina foreshore is also proposed as a reserve as well as the banks of the Joseph River, “a wetland of outstanding national habitat value for wildlife, including the endangered black stilt,” according to the report. The Lands and Survey assessment teams, had agreed before beginning their work on the reports that the Clayton Committee's “multiple use” definition — upon which a great deal of the credibility and authority of the report rests — should be split into two. The first category is range land: areas which may continue to be leased for primary production purposes on a long-term basis with provision for public use and a rent basis recognising this. The second is public land:

areas with no or negligible primary production value but where limited grazing on a permit basis may be appropriate. These public lands may be extended to include area which a pastoral lessee does not wish to retain and which the Crown has accepted. The team recommended in the trial report that 10,112 ha of the eight stations, or 8 per cent, should come into the classification of range lands under the multiple use definition. It is proposed that range lands be available to the runholders for grazing, but the chief pastoral officer, Christchurch. Mr B. Card, told the meeting that the terms under which runholders would have use of range lands were still to be worked out. He was collecting feedback from runholders and others on this matter. A further 13,266 ha, or 11 per cent of the total run area, is proposed to be left as "public land.” On three of the largest of the eight runs — Godley Peaks. Lilybank and Mt Gerald — situated at the head of Lake Tekapo. soil and water conservation run pldn agreements with the catchment board are also being processed. The agreements would retire from grazing about 40 per cent of the Godley Peaks 23,620 ha, some 90 per cent of Lilybank's 23,550 ha and more than 67 per cent of Mt Gerald’s 19,380 ha. Should these lands be subtracted from the 119,240 ha considered to be the total land area of the eight Tekapo stations, the reserve and multiple use proposals affect 32 per cent of the remainder. On Godley Peaks the multiple use proposals affect something like 66 per cent of the station area remaining after the run plan retirements in a huge 9400 ha area running north-south which has as its eastern boundary the bank of the Godley River and as its western boundary the top of Hall Range. On the obverse, the study team’s proposals for reserve and multiple use lands (after allowance for the retirements under run iplans) means that some 68 per cent of the total run areas, mostly under pastoral and special leases, would be available for conversion to renewable lease and therefore potentially freehold under the recommendations of the Clayton Report. This compares with the proposal arising from the Awatere River Valley study in Marlborough which is that

from a total of leasehold and freehold land in the study area of 103.000 ha, some 38 per cent, or 39.000 ha. should be retained as public land, range land or reserve. This represents some 54 per cent of the total leasehold area in the study area — the stations of Glenlee. Upcot, Middlehurst. Langridge, Richmondale. Gladstone. Camden and Awapiri - of 71.843 ha. As a further comparison, the Rock and Pillar assessment team proposed that 20 per cent, or 9376 ha, of the total 45,856 ha in 22 pastoral leases be designated multiple use and therefore be not available for conversion to renewable lease and potentially freehold. The Rock and Pillar team designated no reserve area on the higher country. The Awatere team designated a massive 19.858 ha of reserve which is included in the 38 per cent of the study area proposed to be retained by the Crown. The reserve area variations between the three assessments are interesting and significant. Land designated as reserve would in all probability be completely lost by the runholder for the purposes of running stock. The study teams explained that they took the view that reserve lands were those of major ecological and conservation significance which met the criteria of the Reserves Act 1977 and were readily capable of boundary definition. At the public meeting in Tekapo, the Professor of Range Management at Lincoln College, Professor Kevin O'Connor, said that the reserves proposals were critical. “The report identifies typical tussock grassland communities but then doesn't include them in the reserves proposals,” he said. “We are changing from one type of farming to another (grazing of native tussock pastures to improved or over-sown pastures) and we need to retain areas of tussock sequences to be able to know what is sustainable. “We are coming io rely upon the over-sown, topdressed pastures and we don't know if this style of farming is sustainable in the long term." He proposed a series of smaller reserves for tussock sequences. Discussion of the trial assessment report at the public meeting also centred around the question of "exhaustive" versus “representative.” The Clayton Report said that the members of the committee envisaged the designation of multiple use land being carried out on a

representative rather than an exhaustive basis throughout the South Island. "We emphasise, however, that the representative basis should be generous, not meagre. We reject the exhaustive basis simply because it seems impractical to designate every single area of land that might be thought to have, for example, some recreational value." Mr J. Anderson, from Omarama, strongly criticised the method of approach of the assessment team in the Tekapo region. "You are opening up a land grab. Every club such as bird watchers, fishermen and even nudists will be in with a claim for reserving land. You might as well make the whole lot a reserve." he said. Mr Card said he took exception to the term “land grab." The exercise was to identify multiple use and reserve land so that the rest could be alienated from the Crown — in other words be available for freehold. Mr Lindsay Saunders, of Fairlie. said the assessment team's approach had been exhaustive rather than representative. On the western side of Lake Tekapo anything that was wetlands had been held back from freehold. Mr A. Aubrey, of Omarama. said that anything worth taking had been taken and that the multiple use lands were too exhaustive. If any area was wanted as a wetlands reserve some time in the future it could be taken under the Town and Country Reserves Act. Mr Chalmers replied that he did not think the assessment was exhaustive for wetlands in the district. Certainly the reserve areas were exhaustive for the habitat of the black stilts, he said. Mr Ray Pearce, who has studied the black stilts, said there were 15 pairs at present — the total world population. These breeding pairs were poised for a record season. "We know what is required for management of the black stilts, but we need the reserves to be able to do it." Another member of the assessment team. Mr Holdgate, said that a major constraint to the acceptability of the whole exercise to ail parties was the fact that the normal > periods of negotiations with runholders over the management and possible reservation of wetlands had to be compressed so much. The study teams had only six weeks to prepare the ■draft reports. The trial reports will be open for two months for public comment and submissions, which have to be in by January 15.

Submissions could also be presented in person before the study team while the team reviewed its trial report during the remainder of January. The final reports, along with the Land Settlement Committees’ recommendations have to be back in Wellington by February 15 when the Land Settlement Board will consider everything. There has been agreement among the Tekapo runholders that any submissions should be made direct to the assessment team and not released through the media. The runholders of the Rock and Pillar and the Awatere have voiced their concerns with the reports publicly. The high country committee of Federated Farmers is also studying the reports and will make submissions on them. One of the only light spots of the Lake Tekapo meetings was provided, however, by one of the eight runholders

affected by the report. Mr Bruce Scott, of Godley Peaks. He. commented on an assertion in the report by the Land Settlement Committee that the 1220-metre contour to separate range lands from

public lands on Godley Peaks was satisfactory from a practical point of view. "It is most unsatisfactory." he said. “I'would have to send my wethers up with altimeters round their necks," he said.