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.

The threat of kauri dieback disease is rearing its ugly head in Northland but it's not the native tree's only enemy this summer.

The Department of Conservation is planning to upset the stomachs of kea that scavenge for food from tourists - a move designed to save the birds' lives.

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

"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.

Twenty-seven pilot whales beached at the top of the South Island overnight have been euthanised.

Australia is following a scheme introduced in NZ to decide which wildlife should be allowed to die off

The Department of Conservation has put volunteers on a remote South Westland beach after crowds started turning up to view the penguins.

A kiwi which was savaged by a dog near Coromandel has been euthanised at Auckland Zoo.

Yet another Government IT project has gone off the rails with a new DoC land management system costing taxpayers millions in budget overruns.

The Department of Conservation (DoC) has quashed a rumour circulating in Hawkes Bay promoting an "open fishing day" at Te Angiangi Marine Reserve today.

The owner of a dog which chased a sea lion from the sand dunes on an Otago Peninsula beach to the sea has been granted diversion.

It was the kind of photo opportunity Cabinet ministers dream of.

The DoC could be facing one of its worst possum infestations in decades, partly because workers who helped with pest control were sent to fight bushfires in Australia.

New electronic signs will alert trampers on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing to increased risk of volcanic eruption. Lights on the signs