Temporary legal road closure at Tucker Beach Wildlife Management Reserve

Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) will be repeating a temporary closure of Legal Road that accesses the Tucker Beach Wildlife Management Reserve for the upcoming Banded Dotterel nesting season.

The nationally vulnerable and endangered threatened birds use the reserve land as a nesting site from November until late January.

QLDC General Manager Community Services Dr Thunes Cloete advised that after consulting with a local ecologist and the Department of Conservation, a temporary road closure to vehicles has been determined to be the best approach to protecting these birds.

“As the birds build their nests on the ground, they’re highly vulnerable to vehicles passing through the area. So we can best protect the nesting sites, we’ll be closing the road from 5:00pm Thursday 25 October 2018 until Thursday 31 January 2019,” said Dr Cloete.

“Last year’s closure resulted in some unfortunate behaviour and vandalism of the area by groups opposed to the limited access. This type of behaviour is not acceptable and we ask for some understanding as to why this temporary closure is important,” he said.

While the road will be closed to vehicles, pedestrian access to the legal road and reserve land will remain. We ask that pedestrians take as much care as possible to ensure the birds are not disturbed.

The closure will not limit emergency access to the reserve.

ENDS:

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