An online campaign to make submissions on proposed changes to fishing management regulations regarding sea lions, which the Green Party fears threaten the existence of the species, was officially launched on a beach on the Otago Peninsula yesterday.
The community has been given an extra 15 working days to give their views on the proposed Dart Passage and Riverstone monorail concessions to transport tourists between Queenstown and Fiordland because of the huge public interest and the need for more time to understand the complex issues, the Department of Conservation says.
Changes afoot in regulations governing water use in Otago will influence the region's prosperity for years to come, the Otago Regional Council says. Rebecca Fox looks at the council's sometimes controversial approach to water quality and quantity.
A small group of the rare mohua has flown to the relative safety of Resolution Island. But not under their own steam, writes Caroline Harker, of Wanaka.
A recent aerial 1080 operation in the Silver Peaks area has had several benefits - not only have rat and possum populations been knocked to zero but researchers have had a chance to study the impact of 1080 on the resident South Island robin population.
To protect nesting yellow-eyed penguins, the Boulder Beach Conservation Area will again be closed to the public for three months.
International research published this month suggesting frogs and other amphibians will eventually have no refuge from disease, climate change and shrinking habitat is no surprise to University of Otago scientist Dr Phil Bishop.
It the Frog, of Muppets fame, has not helped the cause of frog preservation.
A new Antipodes Island parakeet pair has been moved into renovated digs at the Kiwi Birdlife Park in a bid to boost captive numbers. Only about 2000 are thought to exist in the wild.
The Ben Lomond track had a huge makeover throughout the weekend as more than 65 volunteers turned out to rid it of 50,000 wilding conifer pines.
A trust set up following an oil spill half a world away is helping save a colony of sooty shearwaters, otherwise known as muttonbirds, at Taiaroa Head, on Otago Peninsula.
Increasing commercial activities on conservation land could result in better protection for New Zealand's threatened native forest and birdlife, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Jan Wright says.
Effective fisheries management requires a community-based response, according to Chris Hepburn, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Otago's marine science department.
The Department of Conservation will receive $100,000 from gold-miner Oceana Gold in return for taking a neutral stance on an application to expand the East Otago gold mine.
An Otago-wide initiative to bring back native kowhai trees has taken root in the Wakatipu, as 35 volunteers mucked in at the Lake Hayes walkway on Saturday morning, planting over 120 trees and shrubs.
A disappointed Department of Conservation has reported the deaths of seven keas following a recent 1080 pest control operation on the West Coast that was designed to prevent the birds eating poison baits.
Occupancy rates at new motels on Lake Wanaka's Mou Waho Island are expected to be high - but it will be weta, not human guests, enjoying the lodgings.
New Zealand risks damaging its international "clean green" image unless it responds positively to a proposed new global law against "ecocide", international lawyer Polly Higgins says.
The population of the threatened kaki (black stilt) has been boosted in the Mackenzie Basin with the release of 38 young birds in the Tasman River area about a week ago.
This picture of Moke Lake, by Lucia King-Smith (12), of Queenstown, is part of the "Illuminate Our Place" exhibition in Auckland.
