The Department of Conservation (Doc) is satisfied roadworks in the Catlins are not disruptive to nearby nesting yellow-eyed penguins, despite concerns raised by locals and a former ranger.
Doc has started construction on a car park at the forefront of a multimillion-dollar heritage centre which will be built later this year at Curio Bay.
Construction of the Natural Heritage Centre, to be built by the South Catlins Charitable Trust, cannot begin until the yellow-eyed penguin breeding season was over on March 1, due to stipulations in its resource consent.
However, work on the car park for the site was being orchestrated by Doc.
The car park was governed by a separate resource consent.
Curio Bay resident Neil Waldman said Doc was ignoring the laws in the Wildlife Act which prohibited disturbing wildlife, as there was at least one nesting yellow-eyed penguin and its chick less than 10m away from the road where work was being done.
A video posted online showed roadworks being completed next to a flax area where the squeaking of a yellow-eyed penguin could be heard. Mr Waldman said Doc was "glossing over" the issue in order to hurry the project forward.
"They say everything’s fine ... but everything is not fine."
He believed the close proximity of the noisy roadworks was disruptive to the endangered penguins.
He said part of the problem was there were so few breeding pairs in the area.
"You could do that if there was a healthy population, but every chick is precious at this point."
Doc volunteer ranger Sian Torrington said she raised her concerns with Doc during her stint over the summer.
She was shocked and saddened Doc had continued to build so close to the nest.
"It’s really bizarre and there is a large area where the flax has been ripped up."
As a Doc volunteer ranger and environmentalist, she cared about the native wildlife.
Part of her role was to keep people away from the nesting penguins.
To see bulldozers less than 10m away made her job feel "rather futile".
Doc Murihiku district acting operations manager John McCarroll said he was satisfied the work being done at Curio Bay was not placing the penguin adult and chicks at risk.
Mr McCarroll had seen the chick in its habitat and it was being managed "very well".
"There is no evidence of any distress from them [the penguins]."
Work would be moved at least 30m away from the nest in the coming days.
"In the coming weeks there will be the need to do some work closer to the nest again and we are going to put in some procedures around that which would involve closer monitoring."
Mr McCarroll appreciated the fact the public had alerted Doc to their concerns and the department had taken them seriously.
Charitable Trust acting chairman Peter Duffy said he was aware of the locals’ fears but had "total confidence" in Doc’s ability to manage the situation well.
The car park’s construction was not organised by the trust.
Mr Duffy said one of the aims of the whole project was to better manage tourists visiting the area and enhance the local wildlife.
