Monthly Archives: December 2025

Wellington Water Pollution Warnings Show Why Recreation Users Need Clear, Timely Water Quality Information By Dave Rhodes, Guest Author Recent warnings issued for coastal and freshwater swimming spots in the Wellington and Lower Hutt areas highlight a growing and often … Continue reading →

Opinion by Andi Cockroft, Chair, CORANZ Organisations such as CORANZ exist for a clear and enduring purpose: to protect and promote outdoor recreation, public access, and the sustainable management of New Zealand’s land and freshwater resources. Their legitimacy, influence, and … Continue reading →

CORANZ member organisation Responsible Campers Association (RCA) is developing practical tools to support responsible freedom camping across Aotearoa - and they’re asking for help from the wider outdoor recreation community. RCA has created an online Responsible Camping Accreditation Quiz, designed … Continue reading →

A scientist has made a plea to ditch 1080 poison, a slow-to-kill toxin that causes intense suffering to creatures that ingest it and as used by the Department of Conservation over large swathes of public wilderness lands. Instead Dr Pollard … Continue reading →

Commentary by Andi Cockroft, Chair, CORANZ Outdoor recreation depends on trust. People walk tracks, hunt, cycle, run dogs, gather food, and take children into public spaces on the assumption that if an area is open, it is reasonably safe to … Continue reading →

Guest post by Dave Rhodes Pine plantations have become an increasingly dominant feature across New Zealand’s rural landscapes - not just in traditional forestry regions, but in high-country areas, marginal farmland, river corridors, and even places long valued for recreation … Continue reading →

Across Canterbury, and in other intensive-farming regions, people have been quietly drinking water with elevated nitrate levels for decades. Now the science is catching up – and it makes for grim reading. International studies show that long-term exposure to nitrates … Continue reading →

mentary by Andi Cockroft, Chair, CORANZ Lessons from British Columbia for New Zealand** In British Columbia, Canada, something remarkable is happening. In places where open-net pen salmon farms have been removed from key migration routes, many wild salmon runs are … Continue reading →

Compiled by CORANZ Environment Canterbury (ECan), has carried a motion to declare a nitrate emergency at its final meeting recently. But the vote was narrowly carried – nine for, seven against – indicating some councillors are in a state of … Continue reading →

Guest post by Dave Rhodes Why New Zealand Cannot Ignore the Global Warning on Trifluoroacetic Acid (TFA)** For years, we have raised alarms about chemical contamination in our rivers, lakes and soils. From pesticides in groundwater to nitrates in drinking … Continue reading →

by Tony Orman Currently the Department of Conservation (DOC) is increasingly carrying out aerial 1080 poison drops over large areas of public land, particularly on the West Coast. Some persons, knowledgeable of individual areas, may be puzzled by that in … Continue reading →