By Scott MacLeod
NGATEA - The Department of Conservation plans to sell a piece of the nation's biggest freshwater wetland reserve.
The grassy 32ha block, near Ngatea, on the Hauraki Plains, borders the 9000ha Kopuatai Peat Dome, which houses rare plants and animals, such as the 3m-tall native rush sporodanthus.
Staff initially wanted
to keep the land, valued at $250,000, because it gave access to other areas. However, the department decided to quash the block's reserve status and dispose of it, after consulting Conservation Minister Nick Smith.
A senior conservation officer at the department, Grant Barnes, said the block was being used as farmland and had no conservation value.
But a wetlands expert at Waikato University, Dr Keith Thompson, said surplus conservation land should be returned to its natural state on principle. "We already have ample grass and we do not need any more. We should not take the easy cop-out."
The land was one of five blocks that belonged to state-owned Landcorp from 1987. Landcorp sold four of the blocks before giving the last one to the department.
Dairy farmer Arthur Blake has leased the land for 20 years and wants to buy it.
