Park the
Mökihinui
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Forest & Bird is working to give lasting protection to the Mökihinui River. By David Brooks.
T
he Mökihinui River on the West Coast has been saved from Meridian Energy’s planned 85-metre-high hydro dam but there is a long way to go to ensure one of New Zealand’s most pristine rivers is never threatened again. Forest & Bird Top of the South Field Officer Debs Martin is leading our campaign to have the Mökihinui River and catchment added to neighbouring Kahurangi National Park. She says putting the river in the park would ensure that another power company or developer would be unable to put up a new plan to destroy the Mökihinui’s natural treasures. “All the evidence gathered by the Department of Conservation, Forest & Bird and our allies shows conclusively the Mökihinui deserves to be preserved. Putting it in the national park is the best way to achieve this,” she says. “The reasons why the Mökihinui must be preserved have now been firmly established – it would be stupid and wasteful to have to argue the case again in another drawn-out and expensive legal process.” Meridian’s dam would have created a 14-kilometre-long reservoir along the spectacular bush-clad Mökihinui Gorge, drowning 330 hectares of forest and destroying habitat essential for native birds, insects, fish and other animals. The state-owned power company was granted resource consents to build the dam in 2010 and organisations including Forest & Bird and DOC soon after announced they would appeal the decision in the Environment Court. The hearing was due to be held in September this year but Meridian wisely abandoned the proposed dam in late May, saying the opposition to the project created too many uncertainties. The river and catchment were originally considered for inclusion in Kahurangi National Park but when the park
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was created in 1994 the Mökihinui River was left out, partly because of lobbying by pro-development interests. A map of the national park shows the borders that mostly follow the coast and natural contours suddenly swerve eastwards to exclude the Mökihinui catchment. Landscape architect Gavin Lister said in evidence prepared for DOC that it would be difficult to find an area with greater natural character anywhere in mainland New Zealand. The gorge alone supports 21 indigenous bird species, 11 of which are threatened. These include the whio (blue duck), which can live only in clear, fast-flowing rivers. Other endangered wildlife include great spotted kiwi, long-tailed bats and carnivorous Powelliphanta giant land snails. Native fish life is rich, with longfin eels, ïnanga and a variety of bullies and kökopu . The gorge area comprises primary lowland podocarp and broadleaved forests that are regionally and nationally rare. Northern rätä provide swathes of seasonal red blossoms among the rimu, mataï and kämahi. Different species of beech become more predominant higher in the hills above the river. In 2004 DOC assessed waters of national importance for biodiversity conservation. Of 4706 river catchments around New Zealand, the Mökihinui was ranked seventh highest. In spite of this, the Mökihinui catchment land has stewardship status – a relatively low level of protection under the Conservation Act. It is clearly inadequate to protect the treasures the Mökihinui contains. Stewardship areas with significant but largely poorly studied conservation values were identified before DOC was established in 1987, and it was intended that these areas would be systematically assessed. High-value land