Department of Conservation (Doc) community ranger Jim Fyfe said the summer rangers programme was a joint venture with the Dunedin City Council which had been running for the last five years.
This year three summer rangers were being employed, Mr Fyfe said.
They started about Labour Weekend and would be working for five months over the summer.
Lately, beaches had been busy with wildlife and campsites had been filled with tourists, who were coming back after a Covid-19-enforced absence.
The upcoming season looked quite busy, Mr Fyfe said.
Summer ranger Chris Brooker, of Dunedin, said it was his first time in the role, having previously worked at Otago Museum.
Originally from Australia, he was enjoying being out in nature and talking to people in ‘‘one of the most awesome places in the world’’.
Each day they were patrolling and visiting sites from Warrington to Brighton, with a focus on ensuring people had positive interactions with wildlife and that holidaymakers were camping in the right places, in the right ways.
Mr Brooker was enthusiastic about the role, which was in part was about ensuring people were enjoying themselves as much as possible.
‘‘I think it’s great ... It’s awesome that we have this presence,’’ he said.
Having boots on the ground meant issues could be communicated to the council and Doc which they might otherwise be unaware of.
The rangers were also able to be advocates for the areas people visited and were splitting their time between wildlife and camping sites.
All their interactions with both locals and tourists so far had been positive, with people pleased to see them.
The coming year looked to be a busy one for freedom camping sites and Ocean View had been ‘‘pretty much’’ full nearly every night recently, Mr Brooker said.
Many of the campers came from Europe, particularly Germany, France and England.
One of the key pieces of advice was to check beaches for seals and sea lions before letting dogs off the lead.
Most spoken to so far had been happy to put their dogs on leads as they passed by the creatures, Mr Brooker said.
