Flooding damages Orokonui Ecosanctuary

Recent severe weather has caused damage costing $10,000 to Dunedin’s fenced biodiversity sanctuary.

Orokonui Ecosanctuary is home to many threatened species and habitats, and between Sunday and Wednesday it received more than 200mm of rain.

Communications lead Taylor Davies-Colley said while the wildlife were resilient to the downpour, a road around the fence line was not.

‘‘[The fence] is our most important thing and having that road damaged with kind of big cutouts and things from the rain means we can’t as easily get vehicles around it,’’ he said.

There was also damage to some tracks staff used for monitoring.

While he was relieved there had been no damage to the fence itself (which could have allowed predators to enter the sanctuary), some re-prioritising had to be done, he said.

‘‘We won’t really have a choice, we’ll have to repair it.

‘‘As a not-for-profit . . . it’s always about trying to do the most with the small amount of money we have and so ... that will take funds away from other work that we might want to do.’’

Any donations would go towards repairing the damage, Mr Davies-Colley said.

felicity.dear@odt.co.nz