Lynda van Kempen

Pedestrians and cyclists have a safer way to travel into Cromwell now a path has been built alongside the highway at one of the entrances into the town.

Dams on the Nevis river would increase the vulnerability of threatened species by flooding the habitats of three rare plants, three threatened birds and a new species of skink, a tribunal heard in Cromwell yesterday.

The Nevis Valley features an outdoor museum of 19th and 20th-century gold mining methods, says a group focused on preserving important Otago goldfields sites.

The Minister of Conservation, Tim Groser, will not stand in the way of a proposed hydro-electric development on the Nevis River.

The Nevis River is the "jewel in the crown" of Otago rivers, kayakers told a special tribunal yesterday.

Central Otago power company Pioneer Generation is building another hydro-electricity station on the Teviot River, to provide electricity for Alexandra and Roxburgh residents.

A hydro-electric power scheme on the Nevis River would make an insignificant contribution to the country's electricity supply, so sacrificing the river for that reason was unnecessary, former minister of energy David Parker said.

Two generations of kayakers have made a plea for the Nevis River to be left alone.

Fish and Game New Zealand was taking the lead in protecting rivers even though it was the Department of Conservation's role, a special tribunal was told in Cromwell yesterday.

There were too many "dead rivers" in New Zealand without adding the Nevis, Brian Turner said yesterday.

New Zealand is the El Dorado of fly-fishing destinations in the world and the Nevis River is the pinnacle, according to a fly-fishing guide.

Four people have expressed their views on a new Roxburgh swimming pool as part of the Central Otago District Council's Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP).