A fire strategy for the Mackenzie Basin will be developed following the devastating fire that has turned up to 50 Lake Ohau Village homes to ash.
Mackenzie Mayor Graham Smith said last night Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage had told him she wanted a fire strategy developed for the Mackenzie Basin, a move he was "thrilled" with.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand would work with local councils, Land Information New Zealand, the Department of Conservation and runanga to identify issues and come up with a plan to manage land and reduce the risk of vegetation fires.
"It's wonderful that the minister sees the need to understand how we can take some of that risk away,'' he said.
"It's a very positive approach.''
The news came as a Federated Farmers claim that ungrazed land in New Zealand’s high country was increasing the fire risk was labelled by environmentalists as opportunistic "nonsense".
As the fire burned through nearly 5000ha, including 2000ha of conservation estate, the clean-up took a political turn.
Federated Farmers high country chairman Rob Stokes said the organisation had for years feared "locking up" high country land was dangerous.
Further government policies, including new freshwater policies and destocking that would come with new fencing requirements, would result in the growth of more combustible vegetation.
"There is simply no science to support destocking," Mr Stokes said. "Now people have lost their homes because of mismanagement by Doc [Department of Conservation]."
Ms Sage said yesterday her present focus needed to be on people who had suffered due to the fire, but the Ruataniwha and Ahuriri Conservation Areas had been affected.
She noted the budget to control wildling pines increased in 2019 to $21million and a further $100million over four years was allocated in Budget 2020 for future work.
She dismissed Federated Farmers’ concerns.
"Grazing on nearby public conservation land would have a significant negative impact on the native species found here, and grazed tussock still burns very well, which is why stock are lost in fast-moving grass fires," Ms Sage said.
"Tussock lands in themselves don’t increase the fire risk. The bigger challenge is doing all we can to reduce emissions and the effects of climate change, which we’re already seeing are contributing to drier summers and longer and more intense wildfire seasons, especially in the eastern South Island."
Wanaka-based landscape architecture consultant Anne Steven said it was unfortunate when "tragic events" became tangled up in larger issues like high country land management.
It was a "complex" issue that was over-simplified by calling for sheep to be put back on the land.
"Yes, there is a fuel load, but that fuel load will be there no matter what land use is being carried out and to suggest that sheep grazing would have mitigated this fire is nonsense," she said.
"To say that it’s lack of grazing from land being ‘locked up’ in Department of Conservation estate is nonsense.
"Doc is doing their job in allowing our native ecosystems to flourish — in this case, it’s a lot of manuka shrubland along with other grey shrubland species and beech forest, and manuka in particular is rich in oil.
"It will conflagrate quickly if a fire gets into it, but the alternative of not having it, simply because it creates a fire load, is unthinkable."
She said effort would be better placed on a containment strategy for fire.
National's conservation spokeswoman and Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean said high country farmers, Crown pastoral lessees, had the knowledge and history to manage the land.
"For too long, some political parties have treated them as the enemy, and as people who farm without any regard to environmental impact," Mrs Dean said.
"That position couldn’t be further from the truth."
