A biological survey this past weekend at Deep Stream and the Denniston Plateau shows that the enormous coal mine proposal must be stopped, says Forest & Bird.
A group of 16 scientists, staff, and volunteers walked four hours into the remote Deep Stream area to carry out a mini bioblitz survey of plant and animal species, before it is lost to part of the proposed mining pit.
“Destroying this spectacular landscape for coal would be an absolute tragedy for the area and contribute in a negative way to climate change,” says Scott Burnett, Forest & Bird spokesperson. “It could be a New Zealand Great Walk with its incredible history, dramatic cliffs, and beautiful streams running over broad sandstone erosion pavements pocketed with Zen garden-like wetlands."
The team used light traps, night-time searches, and took eDNA soil and water samples which pick up dead or alive fragments of DNA. Findings will be logged on iNaturalist over the coming weeks.
The search covered two areas slated to be part of Bathurst Resources’ proposed coal mines. The focus area was Deep Stream, part of the Stockton Plateau mainly managed by Land Information New Zealand with a land use classification of parks/recreation.
On the Denniston Plateau, which neighbours Deep Stream, Forest & Bird has been calling for the public conservation land to be reclassified as a scientific reserve because of its geological, landscape and biological values.
Pictures and a map are available at this link and video can be made available on request.
The last hour of searching included a rare sighting of New Zealand’s 2026 Bug of the Year, the Avatar moth, which is Nationally Critical and only lives on the Denniston Plateau. The 2025 Bug of the Year, velvet worm (peripatus), was also seen.
The team heard roroa great spotted kiwi and saw West Coast green geckos, a forest gecko, carnivorous Powelliphanta patrickensis snails, and a trapdoor spider that is currently undescribed to science. Finds also included the At-Risk pixie hat moss Pleurophascum ovalifolium, eyebright Euphrasia wettsteiniana, and the lichen Micarea isabellina.
“The mine would likely drive the Avatar moth to extinction, and bring other species much closer,” says Mr Burnett. “In the 21st century, New Zealand shouldn’t be deliberately causing extinctions for a coal mine."