The council's ''hands-off approach'' was not meeting the needs of the environment or communities, one candidate said and others, including a sitting councillor, shared similar concerns after the Wakatipu Wilding Conifer Control Group (WCG) wrote to the council candidates.
A response was received from 12 out of the 21 candidates.
In a letter to candidates, WCG co-chairman Peter Willsman, of Queenstown, said the Otago community was concerned the council, as the leading pest agency in the region, had not taken a proactive role in wilding control.
Candidate Jon Mitchell said the policies ''that may be said to relate to wilding pine in the regional policy statement are entirely inadequate''.
''I am very comfortable with working to ensure that a much more effective and realistic approach to the serious issue of wilding pine control is adopted in the new regional policy statement, as it is reviewed in the next council term,'' Mr Mitchell wrote in response.
He said he had a sound appreciation of the impacts wilding pines had on the environment which included invasion of indigenous flora and fauna and increased fire risk.
Gary Kelliher said if he was elected to the council, he would question its ''lack of involvement to date and the reasons why'' and would lobby for a proactive ORC policy and support for wilding conifer control in Otago.
Fellow candidate Andrew Rutherford admitted he did not have a ''strong set opinion on the issue of wilding pines in Otago'' but added ''there are many pine trees growing around Queenstown with control only being seriously exercised around the margins'' and said he would be willing to meet WCG to find out more.
Gerry Eckhoff said that ''as a sitting member of the ORC, I have endeavoured to engage the ORC as to its responsibilities with wildings'' yet the ORC had ''shown no enthusiasm so far for engaging on a much wider scale with the community''.
Mr Eckhoff said there needed to be a really proactive stance by the regional council to what he labelled the ''biggest landscape issue this region faces''.
- On Tuesday, the Queenstown Lakes District Council authorised the mayor to sign the amended Otago Wilding Trust deed. Amendments to the trust include a name change to Otago Wilding Tree Trust and removal of the ORC as a founding member.
In a letter to Mayor Vanessa van Uden, ORC chairman Stephen Woodhead said he had previously discussed the regional council's concern ''with being a full member of the trust as it conflicts with our role as a regulator in respect of wilding trees''.
