Samantha Gee of RNZ
Labour and the Greens are backing a call for Sams Creek to be included in the Kahurangi National Park to protect it from future mining proposals at the top of the South Island.
Gold was first discovered at Sams Creek in Upper Tākaka in the 1970s and several companies had undertaken exploration work since then. A recent bid for a mining permit by Australian company Siren Gold was declined in May.
The company faced staunch opposition from people in Golden Bay, with many concerned about the impact on the environment and the nearby Te Waikoropupū Springs, which holds some of the clearest water in the world.
A petition calling on the government to recommend that Sams Creek and adjoining conservation land around the Tākaka River and Cobb Valley be included in the Kahurangi National Park was presented to Green MP Lan Pham at the Parliament on Wednesday.
It had more than 11,000 signatures, including that of former Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Nelson MP and Conservation Minister Philip Woollaston.
Pham said the inclusion of Sams Creek in the park was a "no-brainer" and it should not have been left out to start with.
She would hold onto the petition until the next government was elected, before handing it over to the new conservation minister.
Labour conservation spokesperson Priyanca Radhakrishnan said the party supported Sams Creek being added to Kahurangi National Park and if elected, Labour would start the process.
"The Sams Creek area has outstanding scenic and natural features deserving of national park status, like the land it adjoins. The addition will increase the park's size by some 4500 ha, or about one percent, and permanently protect Sams Creek from mining activity."
A spokesperson for Conservation Minister Tama Potaka said he had not been invited to receive the petition and had not yet had an opportunity to consider it.
Woollaston said Sams Creek was an "obvious hole" in the boundary of the national park, which was gazetted in 1996.
"There was a prospecting licence over the Sams Creek area before it was made a national park and I think the powers that be at the time just said the easiest thing is to exclude that from the park, rather than trying to take away a prospecting licence that had been granted."
Given there was now no mining or exploration permit in place, Woollaston said it was a good time for Sams Creek to be added to the national park, "where it always should have been".
"Apart from the prospecting holes they've put in, it's still pristine up there and I think the effect of mining in that area would be very high risk for the Tākaka catchment and the Waikoropupū Springs which are internationally renowned, they are not just a national treasure, they are an international treasure and anything which threatens them should not be allowed."
Woollaston said the exclusion of Sams Creek from the park had been a running sore for the last 30 years.
"Now is the time when it can just be put to bed and the worry of that can go," he said.
Clark said there was a strong case for revisiting the national park's boundaries.
"This is an obvious time to look again at the boundary and include Sams Creek within the national park," she said.
The petition, started by advocacy group Save Our Springs, was seeking to better protect Sams Creek and the famed Te Waikoropupū Springs.
Co-ordinator Kevin Moran said it was significant to have two political parties campaigning on ensuring Sams Creek would be included in the national park.
He said the group remained concerned about another mining application in the area and wanted to see Sams Creek protected in perpetuity.
In August New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals said it had opened the Sams Creek site up to a competitive application process that would enable Siren Gold and rival companies to apply for prospecting, exploration or mining permits.
This story was first published on rnz.co.nz
