DOC proposal could cut red tape to building cycle trails on conservation land

Sunday, 20 December 2020

Perenuka Mountain Bike Park in Te Anau. Te Anau Cycling Inc president Vaughn Filmer said it wasn't the type of course that would attract people to the region in the same way its Snowdon Forrest project would.

Plans have been drawn and money has been set aside for a mountain bike trail, but the Fiordland group organising it say red tape is halting progress.

However, a review proposal could help.

Te Anau Cycling Inc is proposing to build mountain bike trails in the Snowdon Forest, beside Lake Te Anau, in an effort to attract more riders to the area.

But president Vaughn Filmer said little progress had been made because the trails would be built on conservation land.

Meanwhile, its members are travelling two hours to ride the Queenstown trails.

* New mountainbike tracks set to be built in Te Anau

* Mountain bike track plans stymied by DOC bureaucracy

Under the Southland conservation management strategy, cycling is a permissible activity only in specific conservation land areas.

Te Anau Cycling Inc announced its plans last year, and a section around Henry Creek was not covered in the management strategy, published in 2016.

Junior vice president of Te Anau Cycling Incorporated (TACI) Zac Pearson in terrain where proposed tracks would be built in Snowdon Forest. The track had been held up by the Southland Conservation Management Strategy.

However, a Department of Conservation proposal to complete a national partial review of all conservation management strategies might make the process easier.

DOC planning permissions and land director Natasha Hayward said the review would enable the consideration of building new cycle trails and allowing cycling on public conservation land but not everywhere.

It would not address cycling in national parks, which requires a different approach under National Park General Policy 2005, she said.

A map of the proposed track for a cycle trial running through the Waiau river by the Western Southland Trails trust.

It was hoped the work would be completed in the next two years, but required internal agreement, along with input from treaty partners, the Conservation Minister, the New Zealand Conservation Authority, conservation boards, interest groups and stakeholders.

Conservation management strategies are ten-year plans that provide an overview of issues and gives direction into how conservation land is managed.

Two years for the plan to go ahead was too long, as the demand was already there for mountain biking in Southland, Filmer said.

Te Anau did have Lake2Lake and Perenuka Mountain Bike Park but it lacked the type of trail that would attract mountain bikers into the town, he said.

Southland Conservation Board chairman John Whitehead said it was in the quite early stages and it would be interesting how it would change planning for cyle trails.

Four years of technology had already changed a lot and there were things that needed to be clarified such as the definition of an e-bike being motorised or non-motorised, Whitehead said.

During a Southland Conservation Board meeting on December 12, Western Southland Trails Trust members Paul Marshall and Andrew Hunt urged the board to support the review proposal.

The trust has plans to build a cycle trail along the Waiau River, from Manapouri to Te Waewae Bay, which runs through conservation land also not currently included in the Southland strategy.

Depending on the results of the national review, the trust aimed to start construction in three years time.

Southland Mountain Bike president Donald Heslip said it was great news as it could open up more opportunities for cycling.

There were area such as the Longwood Forest that could be opened for opportunities but it would have to consider what the proposal meant, Heslip said.