DOC's network currently includes 15,000 kilometres of track, longer than all the state highways in New Zealand combined. File photo. Photo: Supplied/DOC.
The future of nearly a third of all huts and tracks managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC) is in limbo, as the agency faces a 30 percent shortfall in funding to maintain them.
Director of heritage and visitors Catherine Wilson confirmed the department was reviewing its visitor network - the collection of huts, tracks, carparks, signs and public toilets - to address the lack of funding.
The network currently includes 15,000 kilometres of track, longer than all the state highways in New Zealand combined, as well as 950 huts, 300 campsites and more than 2000 toilets.
Budget 2024 saw a decrease in funding on previous years, with cuts to programmes like Jobs for Nature and the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary, for a total reduction of $134m.
The agency was asked to find savings of 6.5 percent as part of government cost cutting - $31.3 million per year from 2024/25 - and announced cuts to 124 jobs.
"Our estimate is that we have the funding to properly maintain and support about 70 percent of the current network," Wilson said.
It would not necessarily mean a 30 percent reduction of the network, but cuts were being considered.
Asset removal would be "the last option", Wilson said.
Climate change was contributing to the cost of repairing and maintaining the network, she said.
"We're spending more on storm damage - our repair bill following Cyclone Gabrielle reached $90 million for approximately 500 assets damaged. We need to consider visitor safety and don't want taxpayers to fund tracks and places that will continue to be washed out by storms."
DOC was "exploring a range of options to address the shortfall", Wilson said, including a paid car parking trial and consulting on access charging.
Other options included reducing the service at some facilities, and looking at how other organisations could manage parts of the network.
Visitor numbers were growing, but demand was not evenly split across attractions. New Zealanders and international visitors alike were most likely to undertake short, accessible outdoor experiences.
"Many facilities are under-used most of the year, and others oversubscribed," Wilson said. "A realignment of the network gives us the opportunity to balance supply with demand."
"Any proposed changes would be worked through with iwi and stakeholders," Wilson said.
Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club acting president Andrew Brown said the network was a taonga (treasure).
He said there was a risk that, with reduced funding targeting areas of higher use, the more challenging or harder to access tracks would be neglected.
"Therein lies the challenge, isn't it?" he said. "How do you make a national network of huts and tracks and shelter accessible to as many people as possible without prioritising only those areas where value judgments are made about who goes, and where they go, and how they get there?"
He said it was crucial to give people a range of challenge levels.
"You don't get Sir Edmund Hillary climbing Mount Everest in 1953 by accessing the Ōtaki Gorge by car, do you?"
It was already noticeable that tracks that were harder to access were less well maintained.
Brown said the solution lay in collaboration and volunteers, clubs, local government and DOC all had a role to play, considering the cost pressures on DOC.
It would require some leadership from DOC to leverage the volunteer sector, he said.
In late January, DOC announced it was partnering with the Backcountry Trust on 30 hut projects, using $4.2 million from the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy over four years.
The community hut programme would see the two organisations working with hunters, fishers and trampers to maintain and upgrade tracks and huts.
"Interested groups or individuals should contact the BCT to discuss projects they have in mind," said Rob Brown, the trust's national operations manager.
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