"Department of Duck Conservation" sign directs Te Araroa walkers to Whiowhio Hut in Palmerston North Photo:
The Director General of Conservation, Penny Nelson, discusses DOC's large and ageing assets, and the tough decisions that need to be made on what to replace and what to maintain. DOC administers New Zealand's largest recreation network including more than 14,000km of tracks, 326 campsites, approximately 950 backcountry huts and numerous heritage sites across one third of the country.
Recent extreme weather events have caused extensive damage to infrastructure and the budget earlier this month allocated $12.6 million to DOC to plan and rebuild biodiversity, heritage, visitor and other conservation sites damaged in the weather. Last year's budget provided DOC with new funding of $60 million over 4 years for visitor asset management. But documents released under the Official Information Act recently show the Department has dozens of high risk structures overdue for maintenance, and a backlog of maintenance on its huts and tracks network worth over three hundred million dollars.
