MP supports saving bird sanctuary

Southland MP Joseph Mooney is backing the Te Anau community’s effort to save their bird sanctuary.

• SUBSCRIBER: Shock after birds removed from sanctuary

Mr Mooney says he wants to see the Te Anau Bird Sanctuary, Te Punanga Manu, retained or even expanded after meeting with concerned members of the community today.

‘‘I wish to support discussions between the various stakeholders involved on the best way to ensure the birds continue to have home at the sanctuary in Te Anau, as well as working towards a sustainable long-term solution that will see the sanctuary thrive,’’ he told the Otago Daily Times after the meeting.

A furore has broken out in the Western Southland tourist and rural service town after the Department of Conservation (Doc) started removing birds from the sanctuary this week, before a consultation period on the future of the park is finished.

Doc is consulting on the long-term future of the sanctuary after it decided it could no longer run the park as it had to prioritise other conservation work instead.

The consultation period is open until August 3, but Doc removed two blue ducks (kōwhiowhio/whio) yesterday, prompting anger from residents worried the park’s permanent closure was a foregone conclusion.

Sixteen birds live at the sanctuary.

Save the Sanctuary steering committee chairman Roger Stephenson attended the meeting with Mr Mooney, who appeared via video link, and said it was positive.

Mr Mooney told the group he would follow up with Doc and was disappointed with the kōwhiowhio being removed before consultation with the community had finished, Mr Stephenson said.

The ideal outcome for locals would be to have a local community charitable trust set up to look after the sanctuary, he said.

mark.john@odt.co.nz