The Department of Conservation has been dragged into a row over a plan to dump poison from helicopters to kill mice on protected islands 50km offshore from San Francisco.

Pellets laced with 1080 poison will be fed to trout to assess potential risks from the planned massive dump of the pesticide in native forests.

If you've trekked the great outdoors in the past decade or so, chances are you've had a Department of Conservation brochure in your backpack.

Restored cottage on Rangitoto will soon take paying holidaymakers back to 1930s.

Hand-rails or other safety structures are unlikely to be installed on a hazardous section of Mt Aspiring National Park's Cascade Saddle route.

In the parks, beaches, back gardens and forests of the country, non-scientists can help with with a raft of research projects.

New Zealand remains under "intense pressure" from pests, which are costing our economy billions of dollars each year.

Officials have been impressed at new results of a C02-powered pest trap, which has matched 1080 poison in wiping out entire rat populations.

In South Island beech forests, rangers are collecting branches from the canopy of native forests to see how much food is around for native wildlife - and pests.

The threat of kauri dieback disease is rearing its ugly head in Northland but it's not the native tree's only enemy this summer.

The Department of Conservation is planning to upset the stomachs of kea that scavenge for food from tourists - a move designed to save the birds' lives.

A suspicious fire is burning about 10km south of the country's largest Kauri, Tane Mahuta.

Opponents of the controversial poison 1080 are furious at a planned bombardment and say the Conservation Minister is misleading the public.

A Romanian man who disappeared while volunteering with the Department of Conservation on a remote island likely drowned, a coroner has found.

Hundreds of dead red-billed gulls at Taiaroa Head on the Otago Peninsula are no cause for concern, the Department of Conservation says.

Motuariki Island at Lake Tekapo is still smouldering following a devastating fire three days ago, and people should stay away, the Department of Conservation says.

Mike Douglass is a 21-year-old Department of Conservation worker based in Kerikeri who is keeping the campers happy on Urupukapuka Island.

"I can't see this behaviour of having sharks associate food with boats coming to anything good." Shark-cage diving isn't appreciated by some Stewart Is boaties.

Northland fisheries officers say they have seen little illegal fishing over the holiday period.

Selfish or ignorant holidaymakers are threatening one of the world's most critically endangered birds by letting their dogs roam free within metres of nesting chicks.

Conservation Minister Nick Smith says he aims to establish a record number of marine reserves around the coast this year as protecting the offshore environment becomes his top priority.

An Auckland man and his friends thought they had spotted a whale when they glimpsed what turned out to be a giant manta ray.

Twenty-seven pilot whales beached at the top of the South Island overnight have been euthanised.

Australia is following a scheme introduced in NZ to decide which wildlife should be allowed to die off