Regional Parks Management Plan Regional Parks Management Plan

The track systems are particularly important as they are one of the main ways that people
experience the parks, and one of the ways that the council contains the impacts of people
on the parks’ sensitive values. The level of use and the wear and tear on tracks will be
systematically monitored, especially in the Hunua Ranges and Waitakere Ranges Regional
Parks, and appropriate maintenance regimes will be developed (refer to section 14.3 Track
network). Surveillance is also needed to monitor the impact of track use on the ecological
health of the park land, particularly for pathogens such as kauri dieback disease.
It is often difficult to define acceptable levels of activity in terms of their potential or actual
impacts on a range of values, or to set the levels of acceptable change for these. As a
general rule, the council will therefore take a cautious approach and act to avoid adverse
impacts if these are likely, where an impact will be difficult to manage or is likely to be
irreversible. In this context, discretionary activities may be managed or limited in favour of
informal activities on the parks. Furthermore, the number of visitors to a specific locality
may be limited by limiting or reducing visitor infrastructure, such as car parking.
A special feature of the regional parks is that they are managed by park rangers who,
amongst other things, are responsible for the following:
the maintenance of the park settings,
the surveillance of the impacts of activity on the parks,
minimising conflict between users, and
enhancing the visitor experience through providing information and security.
Rangers will act to mitigate any obvious adverse impacts and conflicts when they occur.
However, the cumulative effect of activities, both formal and informal, may only become
apparent over time and will require long term monitoring. The impact of events on parks
requires specific monitoring and different types of management, which are outlined in
section 13.6 Discretionary activities. The council will also work with tangata whenua to
monitor the adverse impacts on the values they associate with the parks (refer to Part 9).
Ongoing monitoring and the evaluation of the recreation and use activity on regional parks
help to determine whether the management objectives in the plan are being met and
remain relevant. Where the management objectives are not being met, the council will
consider adapting its management techniques, for example, by changing the conditions
under which certain activities operate. The outcome of the monitoring and evaluation will be
part of the five yearly State of the Regional Park Network and Services report (refer to
section 16.7 Reporting)
Section 13.5 Discretionary activities, outlines the approval process for independent research
programmes. Research and monitoring may be undertaken in conjunction with other park
and recreation agencies, tangata whenua, the Department of Conservation, and friends
groups and volunteers, where appropriate.
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Regional Parks Management Plan 2010