The Otago Fish and Game Council believes significant conservation and recreation values are threatened by two Nevis Valley tenure reviews advertised at the weekend.
Chief executive Niall Watson has urged people concerned about the issue to make a submission before the November 30 deadline.
Tenure review is a process where, through negotiation, a lessee can freehold land of productive value in return for surrendering land of conservation value, which is then managed by the Department of Conservation (Doc).
The proposals are for Ben Nevis and Craigroy high-country Crown leases held by power company Pioneer Generation.
They involve the Crown retaining just over 11,000ha of mostly high-altitude land, to be managed for conservation by Doc, and the transfer of about 8000ha of mostly valley floor to Pioneer Generation as freehold land.
Mr Watson has in the past called into question whether the hydro-electric dam footprint had been taken as a given by Doc in the tenure review, regardless of the significant values present.
Pioneer Generation has plans for hydro development on the river but has not yet sought resource consents for such a venture.
Mr Watson said yesterday that the tenure-review proposal would help enable industrial-scale developments in heri-tage resource areas that surround Queenstown and Cromwell.
"The high-altitude land is not at obvious risk, but the valley floor is at clear risk from hydro development post tenure review, so this is a very bad deal as far as the public interest is concerned," he said.
The area provided habitat for the vulnerable Smeagol galaxias, a rare native fish found only in the Nevis Valley, as well as being part of the historically important Nevis goldfield, Mr Watson said.
