A Tauranga City Council plan to sell a 38-hectare block of land beside Route K has run into strong resistance from volunteers who have spent years restoring the habitat in Kopurererua Valley.
The Kopurererua Valley Rotary Centennial Trust fired a broadside across the sale plan during public submissions this week on the council's 10-year plan.
The land adjoins Route K and State Highway 29, on the eastern side of the toll road and includes several houses.
Trust spokesman Ian Wilson said the planting of 20,000 trees between the golf course and the block of land would be wasted if the area was lost to private ownership.
The trust has constructed a walkway across the land as part of the recently completed final link in the valley's main central pathway. It also contains the Tauriko School's 2007 commemorative planting of 200 rimu trees.