The local council will consider putting up signs on a New Plymouth walkway following a seal attack on an elderly man, but the animal won't be shot unless necessary.

An elderly man attacked by a fur seal on the New Plymouth foreshore was in a serious condition last night.

Plans for a $240m Fiordland monorail have been derailed by Conservation Minister Nick Smith, who says the project does not stack up economically or environmentally.

The Department of Conservation has been dragged into a row over a plan to dump poison from helicopters to kill mice on protected islands 50km offshore from San Francisco.

Pellets laced with 1080 poison will be fed to trout to assess potential risks from the planned massive dump of the pesticide in native forests.

If you've trekked the great outdoors in the past decade or so, chances are you've had a Department of Conservation brochure in your backpack.

In the parks, beaches, back gardens and forests of the country, non-scientists can help with with a raft of research projects.

New Zealand remains under "intense pressure" from pests, which are costing our economy billions of dollars each year.

An accord committing the Department of Conservation to maintaining the gains made by a privately backed environmental group has been signed in Nelson today.

Officials have been impressed at new results of a C02-powered pest trap, which has matched 1080 poison in wiping out entire rat populations.

In South Island beech forests, rangers are collecting branches from the canopy of native forests to see how much food is around for native wildlife - and pests.

A suspicious fire is burning about 10km south of the country's largest Kauri, Tane Mahuta.

Opponents of the controversial poison 1080 are furious at a planned bombardment and say the Conservation Minister is misleading the public.

Pest poison 1080 will be used to deal with an expected 30 million extra rats this year which threatens to "annihilate" the country's native endangered birds.

"Last night," ranger Mike Ogle said, "things went better". By better, he meant just one pilot whale out of 49 that volunteers had nudged back into the rising Golden Bay tide had returned to shore to die.

A Romanian man who disappeared while volunteering with the Department of Conservation on a remote island likely drowned, a coroner has found.

Hundreds of dead red-billed gulls at Taiaroa Head on the Otago Peninsula are no cause for concern, the Department of Conservation says.

Motuariki Island at Lake Tekapo is still smouldering following a devastating fire three days ago, and people should stay away, the Department of Conservation says.

Mike Douglass is a 21-year-old Department of Conservation worker based in Kerikeri who is keeping the campers happy on Urupukapuka Island.

"I can't see this behaviour of having sharks associate food with boats coming to anything good." Shark-cage diving isn't appreciated by some Stewart Is boaties.

Northland fisheries officers say they have seen little illegal fishing over the holiday period.

Selfish or ignorant holidaymakers are threatening one of the world's most critically endangered birds by letting their dogs roam free within metres of nesting chicks.