Organisers hope a new Catlins walkway will become a key attraction.
The South Catlins Development and Environmental Charitable Trust launched a community-owned walkway project for Curio Bay at its annual meeting last month and work has already begun, with fences going up to keep stock off the track. Work on the track itself will start in the next few months.
The planned walkway will take visitors through the present forest and out to the coast, to the petrified forest at Curio Bay.
South Catlins Development and Environmental Charitable Trust project co-ordinator Juanita Thornton said the trust bought the land in 2009.
"The track adds another element to Curio Bay and hopefully it will give both locals and tourists a walk in the bush where a present-day forest is nearby to a petrified forest."
The site was reputed to be the only one in the world where a living forest grew near an exposed petrified forest. The site's value was identified by Mike Pole of the University of Queensland between 1998 and 2001.
