By Angela Gregory
WHANGAREI - A developer's plan to build a driving range at the Maunu golf course has raised fears that high netting will snare native birds.
Robert Webb, the manager of the Northpower Native Bird Recovery Centre, said the proposed site of the Sherwood Park range could not be worse.
"It's right in the middle of the bird flight path."
He said the 200m-long range included a perimeter mesh screen between 9m and 15m high. It would be coloured green to blend with the natural surroundings, which heightened the risk to birds.
"You couldn't come up with a better way of catching birds."
Mr Webb said wood pigeons nested in nearby conifer trees.
He feared the driving range would eventually use night lights, as suggested by the 7 am to 9 pm opening hours. The lights would attract insects, and in turn nocturnal feeding birds such as moreporks.
Golf club members already brought hurt birds to the centre.
Mr Webb said he would not have objected if the range was sited anywhere else on the golf course. "The geography actually funnels the birds into this spot."
Attaching streamers to the entrance or using brightly coloured netting might help.
He was unhappy that a consultant's report on the proposal said there would be no effect on wildlife, although it acknowledged that endangered or sensitive species might pass through the area on their way to larger tracts of bush in Maunu.
Acting for developer Han Joong Kim, resource management consultant Hester den Ouden said yesterday that she understood the club would talk to Mr Webb.
A Whangarei District Council planner has recommended granting resource consents for the range on the basis that any harm to the environment would be less than minor. All 20 submitters had opposed the plan, raising traffic, noise and landscape concerns.
