Delay in Flock Hill fence decision

A decision over the contentious project to fence a section of Cave Stream on Flock Hill Station has been held off. Photo / File

A decision over a ratepayer-funded fence in a high country station has been held off by the Selwyn Waihora Zone Committee, after concerns more research needs to be done on the project.

About five zone committee members will travel to Cave Stream later this month to visit the site.

It was planned the committee would make a final decision on supporting the funding for a proposed fence by Flock Hill Holdings Ltd last Tuesday.

Environment Canterbury proposed putting $44,236 towards fencing off a section of Cave Stream and associated 35ha wetlands at the station.

It comes after an application by Flock Hill's leaseholder Flock Hill Holdings, owned by Jim Foster and Vince Saunders of Los Angeles-based Coast Range New Zealand.

This was for vegetation clearance on nearby terraces so it could intensify grazing on the land.

It proposed fencing off Cave Stream as a way of mitigating the associated loss of biodiversity on the terraces.

The landowners will contribute $22,000 towards the project.

It has since been decided, this decision to fund the project using ECan's Immediate Steps programme for protecting freshwater biodiversity, is reviewed.

Te Taumutu Runanga representative Les Wanhalla said he will not have an opinion until he has seen the area.

"For me to sit in the office out of town to say yay or nay I don't know what I am doing," he said.

Zone committee chairman Allen Lim told Selwyn Times people are forgetting the landowners are putting in 120ha of farmland for conservation, which is not required.

"In my view $44,000 is a minimal amount . . . if there is an opportunity to protect it, I say protect it," he said.

But it was questioned by residents at the zone committee meeting last Tuesday as to what the fence was designed to do.

Springfield resident Nicky Snoyink asked if a proper landscape assessment on the terraces had been done.

"I just wondered what the fence will enable? I noticed the last couple of months up here a few of the river terraces throughout the basin had been over-sewed, drilled," she said.

She had concerns the fence would give licence for the terrace to be turned into farmland.

ECan's land management advisor Johannes Welsch responded the project is focused primarily on freshwater and the owners would have to go through another consent process through the district council to farm the terrace.

At the meeting, resident John Summers said the leaseholders have a stewardship responsibility and should be funding the project themselves.