Under the Otago Regional Council's draft consultative review of wetland provisions in its regional water plan, it was recommended the Cairn wetland, at the head of the Waipahi River be removed from the plan.
Policy and resource planning director Fraser McRae said the wetland was included in wetland schedule 10 of the water plan after an appeal when the the plan went operative in 2004.
Recently, the council had begun a review of wetlands, mapping them, consulting landowners and visiting sites, with the goal of ensuring all regionally significant wetlands were protected.
As a result of that process, it had been recommended the Cairn wetland be removed from the plan.
The council had been seeking feedback from agencies and landowners on the recommendations in the review before a draft plan change was put out for formal public submissions.
"As a result of the response we have gone back to look at the wetland again."
It had been decided the wetland needed to be re-surveyed by an ecological specialist, Mr McRae said.
The findings would then be assessed and fed back into the plan change process.
Concerns about the wetland's removal from the plan led Otago Daily Times angling columnist Mike Weddell to say the council was admitting it had failed to protect it when it was worth saving.
Fish and Game Otago officer Morgan Trotter said there had been concerns for at least eight years about the sensitive peat wetland which had been at various times over-grazed and pugged up. Attempts had been made to burn it off and drain it.
These issues, which had occurred when it was under water plan protection as an additional wetland, had contributed to poor water quality in the Waipahi River, he said.
The wetland acted as a big sponge, absorbing water in time of high rainfall and releasing it in dry times. It also filtered nutrients and sediments.
"It's pretty important."
He hoped the regional council would reconsider and include it in the water plan with the aim of restoring it.
