Keen sense of conservation

Karen and Andrew Simpson have a leaning tower of yellow ringbinders. It houses all the documentation relating to the science of Balmoral, their high-country station at Tekapo. Anna Chinn explains.

The Simpsons have had assessments done on the soil, rocks, water, and the biodiversity of their 10,000ha back yard, as part of their effort to identify and conserve the things that make it special.

That effort began, initially, out of pragmatism.

The Simpsons had for decades run Balmoral, about half of which was under pastoral lease.

Their homestead, one of the highest in the country, was 900m above sea level.

The farmland was bleak, brown, cold; they had 5500 merino sheep and a smattering of deer.

They were comfortable, though, and the property included priceless views of the Southern Alps and Lake Tekapo.

In 2005, winds of change blew south from Wellington: the government announced it wanted to reclaim 2800ha of the leasehold for the conservation estate.

It sent the Simpsons a precis map of the bit it would have, thanks.

The Simpsons were resistant.

To yield that farmland, they felt, would be to yield the financial viability of the place.

They suspected tenure review was more to do with the scenery; a "land grab" for recreation rather than conservation purposes.

Still, the process caused them to wonder: what on this farm was worth conserving?

And what harm could farming it do?

They engaged some scientists to find out, and the ringbinders started to accumulate.

"We surveyed the whole property to find out exactly what needed to be protected, and what protection mechanisms needed to be placed over those areas to protect whatever was identified.

"The body we used was the QEII [National Trust] so as we could get an outside opinion," Mr Simpson said.

The survey identified about 400ha as having "significant inherent conservation values".

That's the official term for such landscape features as wetland, tussock grassland and grey scrub; features that when magnified reveal native gentian, red tussock, mountain totara, rare native brooms, and other alpine species.

Botanists adore Balmoral.

The QEII survey was the start of a process in which the couple have spent tens of thousands of dollars learning about their patch, so that they could offer an alternative plan to full Crown ownership of that 2800ha.

They don't altogether regret it.

"I've always been passionate about conservation," Mrs Simpson said.

"Andrew's grown into it, probably with my push and shove here and there, but, yeah; I love the little things in the big landscape.

"And even though we farm, those little things have huge value, and the animals coexist with those little things; you know, the moths, the beetles.

"The animals are very much a part of that biodiversity."

Certainly, the sheep don't seem to be ravaging the landscape.

For one thing, you can spend quite some time roving over the station with out seeing another mammal.

"It's extensive farming, not intensive farming," Mr Simpson said.

Furthermore, some signs of merino farming appear as signs of ecological enhancement.

During a drive around the property, the Simpsons pointed out a paddock hirsute with native tussock, which boosts soil moisture and so aids pasture growth.

The paddock had been grazed by the flock. Beyond the fence line was a highway, and between the highway and the paddock was a margin of blonde grasses.

The margin had not been grazed, but no tussock was growing there.

Why not? Mr Simpson's theory was that historically, grazing moa and weka would have scraped around the tussock, assisting its development, and today the sheep performed that function with their nibbling.

"That's not proven; it's just a theory I have."