Rebecca Fox

People dressed up in crazy costumes, flinging their arms around in a parody of a Highland fling, drew a crowd of bemused bystanders in the Octagon, Dunedin, yesterday.

The saddlebacks released into the Orokonui Ecosanctuary last April are breeding a month earlier than they had on their old home on Ulva Island, ecosanctuary general manager Chris Baillie says.

If people continue to flout the law by building unauthorised dams, legal action will be taken, the Otago Regional Council says.

Otago's populations of rare, tiny native freshwater fish will continue their slide towards extinction unless a serious effort is made to save them, a study says.

Conservation Corps courses are credited by many as having pointed their lives in the right direction, but his year - its 21st - the course itself has faced its own challenges.

The Cairn wetland in South Otago will be re-surveyed by an ecological specialist after concerns were raised about its future.

A new tree house was a surprise for the Hayward family, who lost their last one in a hedge fire that nearly claimed their Ravensbourne home.

Up to eight of New Zealand's most endangered kiwi, the Haast tokoeka, will be rehoused in Orokonui Ecosanctuary's predator-proof enclosure from the end of next month.

Continued dredging of Otago Harbour will make an impact on its health but as it is a heavily modified harbour, it is a question of what the community can live with, University of Otago marine science Associate Professor Abby Smith says.

Environment stewards, economic developers or both? Rebecca Fox talks to retiring Otago Regional Council chairman Stephen Cairns about the role of the local body.

In just eight years, Dunedin woman Pru Casey has made a lasting impact on surf life-saving.

Appropriate national direction should mean the extra layer of governance proposed by the Land and Water Forum yesterday will not be needed, Otago Regional Council chief executive Graeme Martin says.