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| Conservation |
Save the Mokihinui
The gorge is a wilderness treasure, with beech forests, ancient podocarps, riotous displays of rata, and rimu festooned with kiekie. The river itself alternately dashes across granite and greywacke boulders, and glides through deep pools, as it twists and turns through the gorge. Living in the river are blue duck (whio), long finned eel (tuna), giant kokopu, and a rich array of other native species. The river and forests clothing the hillsides provide habitat for 16 threatened species. Long-tailed bats, western weka, kereru, and powelliphanta snails inhabit this ecological niche. New Zealand’s own database of waterbodies of national importance ranks the Mokihinui 7th for its natural values. But it all could change … At the mouth of this deeply incised granite gorge, Meridian Energy has proposed a vast hydro scheme –an 85 metre high dam flooding this spectacular gorge. Fourteen kilometres of gorge disappearing under 80 metres of water; 330 hectares of river bed and forest flooded; habitat lost again! Its all in the name of ‘generating more power’. Yet it’s the biodiversity and wilderness that pay the biggest cost. Check this link for a graphic depiction of the before and after effect. With your help, we can save the Mokihinui River. How you can help
Minister of Conservation: MP Steve Chadwick, Parliament Buildings, Wellington. Email: schadwick@ministers.govt.nz Write freepost to Ministers name, Parliament Buildings, Wellington or email the key Ministers
Lobby your local MP Write letters to your local paper and ring talkback radio stations Write/ring/email Meridian Energy, PO Box 2454, Christchurch, 0800 496 501, hydro.info@meridianenergy.co.nz Contact Debs Martin, Forest & Bird Regional Field Officer and Campaign Coordinator, d.martin@forestandbird.org.nz, 03 545 8222 , PO Box 266, Nelson 7040 Tell us your stories of the Mokihinui … send us your photos … offer your expertise! |  |
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Nestled under the western shoulder of Kahurangi National Park, the Mokihinui is the West Coast’s third largest river, draining the vast uplands and mountains of the Lyell, Radiant, Allen, Glasgow and Matiri Ranges, falling steeply through granite and limestone gorges, emerging to meander across open flats, before gathering all its waters together and making a determined charge for the coast through a steep earthquake-shattered gorge. 
