The Star: April 13, 2017

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Thursday April 13 2017 21
News
Dispute over high country fence payment
• By Tom Doudney
CONCERNS HAVE been
raised after ratepayers’ money
was allocated to pay for a fence
which critics say would have
assisted its American leaseholder
to intensify farming on a high
country station.
Environment Canterbury
proposed putting $44,236
towards fencing off a section of
Cave Stream and associated 35ha
wetlands at Flock Hill Station
in spite of its own ecologist Dr
Philip Grove recommending the
project not be funded.
The funding, from ECan’s
Immediate Steps programme
for protecting
freshwater biodiversity,
was then
approved by the
Selwyn Waihora
Zone Committee
at its March 7
meeting on the
John
Sunckell
basis that the
fence would protect
water quality
and biodiversity
in the stream and wetlands.
Flock Hill’s leaseholder Flock
Hill Holdings, owned by Jim
Foster and Vince Saunders of
Los Angeles-based Coast Range
New Zealand, had applied for resource
consent from the Selwyn
District Council for vegetation
clearance on nearby terraces so
that it could intensify grazing
on the land. It proposed fencing
off Cave Stream as a way of
mitigating the associated loss of
biodiversity on the terraces.
Last week the leaseholders
withdrew the resource consent
application after considering the
cost of a landscape assessment
which the district council had
requested.
The zone committee has since
decided to review funding the
fence after learning of the consent
application’s withdrawal and
hearing concerns by the Upper
Waimakariri Group and Department
of Conservation plant
ecologist Nicholas Head and
water management co-ordinator
John Benn who attended its
meeting on Tuesday last week.
Mr Head said the Cave Stream
terraces had long been recognised
as a site of significant ecological
value with highly significant
plant communities and land
forms and the fencing project
would assist with the application
for vegetation clearance.
“I struggle to see how this application
can be consistent with
ECan’s mandate,” he said.
Mr Benn read out a letter
he had received from Dr
Grove which stated that he had
CONTENTIOUS:
A project to
fence a section
of Cave Stream
on Flock Hill
Station is under
fire.
reviewed the project and recommended
that it not be funded.
Dr Grove was “frustrated” that
the funding had been approved
and he suggested that DOC and
others continued to oppose such
projects.
“At our ECan staff end it is important
that we clearly articulate
to the zone committee why these
sorts of projects do not help deliver
on national or regional objectives
for biodiversity and ecosystem
health protection and apply
a clear and unequivocal message
to both project applicants and the
zone committee that they should
not receive ratepayer-funded support,”
Dr Grove wrote.
ECan director science
Dr Stefanie Rixecker said the
concerns raised by DOC and
others as well as the withdrawal
of the consent application would
be taken into account when ECan
revisited the fencing proposal.
ECan’s Mid Canterbury councillor
John Sunckell defended the
project, saying it had received
a very high rating when going
through an assessment process
to determine if funding should
be granted.
He did not regard what Flock
Hill Holdings wanted to do as
intensification because it would
be returning to similar stocking
levels that were in place up until
25 years ago when wilding pines
began to encroach on the land.
Cr Sunckell said Flock Hill
Holdings had already done “a
magnificent job” with its previous
environmental restoration
work on the station, which is
owned by Canterbury University.
Selwyn mayor Sam Broughton
said he would need to know
more about the project before
commenting on whether the
funding was appropriate.
Flock Hill representative Chris
Cochrane did not respond to
a request from the The Star for
comment.
The zone committee will consider
the proposal on May 2.
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