Dispute over ratepayer funded fence

A project to fence a section of Cave Stream on Flock Hill Station is under fire. Photo / Supplied

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 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 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 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 its position on the proposal at its next meeting on May 2.