Crown Pastoral-Tenure Review-Lake Hawea-Conservation ...

RELEASED UNDER THE OFFICIAL INFORMATION ACT
Landscape Unit 3 (LU3) – Breast Mountain Lands:
Character description:
This large land area includes all of the Breast Creek catchment within the lease and is made
up of three incised tributaries of Breast Creek. Overall the characteristics are similar over the
whole area and include the following:
• Broad and rounded ridge crests.
• Undulating, ripply, slump topography mountain slopes.
• Rock bluffs and outcrops usually associated with derivative slope.
• Vegetation consists of depleted snow tussock / herbfield on upper slopes.
• Reddish-brown patches of Dracophyllum are notable on upper south faces and Aciphylla
is also significant over wide areas.
• Sunny faces and lower slopes are OSTD and generally highly modified with exotic
pasture, extensive matagouri shrubland and depleted fescue tussock.
• Green stock camps occur on knobs and high spots.
• Sheet erosion is common over the whole of the unit.
• Very small and narrow areas of riparian beech and shrubland occur within the mid
sections of Breast Creek.
• Access tracks are a feature over the whole of the unit.
• Has a remote backcountry feel.
Overall LU3 broadly retains the appearance of a tussock grassland although is fragmented on
sunny faces and lower slopes. Past management has had a major adverse effect on tussock in
some areas (eg. the crest above the Timaru River and the basin below Breast Hill). Three
areas retain a greater degree of integrity than the rest. These include:
• The upper Breast Creek tributary (on the south boundary).
• The small valley east of Breast Hill which includes a small montane wetland.
• Generally the eastern end of the unit appears less modified than the western end.
Visual & Scenic Values:
The unit is typical tussock range-land. Visual values are directly related to the condition and
health of the tussock grassland. Where areas identified above are in better condition, visual
values are correspondingly higher. Within severely modified and depleted areas visual
values are compromised. In some locations access tracks are visually disruptive and
discordant, where there are steep cuts across open slopes. Occasional bands of rock outcrops
and bluffs are visually significant (eg. within the southern Breast Creek catchment).
In addition the small pockets of riparian beech and shrubland are significant landscape
features.
DOCDM-372005 Lake Hawea CRR - Info.doc 8