Millionaire record producer Mutt Lange - former husband of pop star Shania Twain - is being hailed an eco-hero as his Soho Property Ltd looks to buy Coronet Peak Station.
The reclusive Switzerland-based producer is a shareholder in the group, which has applied to the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) to buy the 22,000ha station owned by Irish billionaire Eamon Cleary.
Peter Willsman, of the Wakatipu Wilding Conifer Control Group (WCG), said the station was "heavily infested in parts" with both wilding pines and goats.
Lange's "impeccable record" at conserving Soho's other holdings, Motatapu, Mt Soho and Glencoe stations near Wanaka, would make the purchase beneficial to the community and the country.
If the OIO approved, he said, the sale would go out for public consultation and the WCG would then add a clause into the sale agreement for invasive conifer control - which was estimated to cost Soho between $800,000 and $900,000.
"It's Mutt's desire to see tussock, beech and the natural flora and fauna of our back country preserved."
Twain and Lange bought Motatapu Station (16,830ha) and Mt Soho (7901ha), for $21.4 million in 2004.
It is not known how assets were split after the couple divorced in 2008.
