Why Save Mt Cass Ridge?

A few months back I had never heard of Mount Cass and the proposal by Mainpower to build a windfarm on the area known as the Mount Cass Ridge. It was suggested to me  that we get Nick Head of DoC to give his talk on the Ecological Values of the Limestone areas of North Canterbury to our monthly meeting of the Royal Society of New Zealand Canterbury Branch of which I’m the current president. Mount Cass Ridge amounts to over half the total of these areas by itself and is the largest by far.  Now as a result of that meeting and what follows I  seem to be in the forefront of one of the many organizations lining up to campaign against this proposed windfarm. I’ve never been a member of an environmental group or been part of an environmental campaign before but I’m not alone in being stirred into action by this proposal.

So what you may ask has got so many people all worked up about a little known, hard to get to, scrubby, windy ridge in North Canterbury. This range of hills between Waipara and the sea seems just another range of hills as you pass that way along state Highway 1.  Known only to a relative few the ridge line is a unique landscape of limestone formations and bluffs harbouring regenerating bush and the largest range of rare and endangered native plants in Canterbury.  Not only is the area unique in Canterbury but probably in all of New Zealand.  

DoC has produced a report entitled “The recreation, amenity and ecological values of the Mt Cass Ridge”, not available for download from the Doc web site but is in wide circulation amongst interested parties. This report details the many rare and endangered plants found in the area. The landscape of rocky limestone outcrops and bluffs provide a refuge for many of the rarest and most endangered plants in Canterbury.  Part of the report suggests that the area become a regional park or reserve. The Canterbury/Aoraki Conservation Board is pursuing the purchase of the land to protect it from inappropriate development and make it available to the public of New Zealand, however their current snag is that the land owner is not currently a willing seller.

Traditionally the landowners in the area have been generous in allowing groups such as tramping clubs and those interested in the ecology access to the area.  With the development of the Kate Valley landfill the south-western part of the ridge came into the hands of Transwaste.  Subsequently this land has come under the control of Mainpower and unaccompanied access is not so readily available.  As part of the Kate Valley development there is already a reserve and walkway to the south of Mount Cass, not quite reaching the summit and mainly in open country.  Hopes for the inclusion of the adjacent ridge into some publicly accessible park in the future now rely on the failure of the Mainpower proposal in it’s present form.

The appeal of the site to Mainpower is clear. It is a high windy ridge and ownership has come to them which makes working through some consent issues easier.  Also part of the attractiveness to Mainpower is the road into Kate Valley as they need a good wide road to get their turbines and towers in.  It’s the destruction resulting from the need to construct the 10m wide road along the ridge and other works such as rock crushing and works for pylon bases that is the root of many objections. This road and associated works would destroy about 30% of the regenerating native bush cover. Success of promised planting in mitigation is questionable and it would be impossible to restore the damage to the landscape by cuts and fills up to10m for the road high across knolls and gullies.  If Mainpower were to construct the north eastern part of the project alone they would probably need to make a greater investment in access roads, probably via Omihi but there would be little or no conflict with these important environmental issues present in the western end.

The Windfarm proposal has so far gone along without much of a profile but opposition is being mobilised  among environmental groups such as Forest and Bird and tramping clubs. The Canterbury/Aoraki Conservation Board made a press release about the Mt Cass Ridge being an inappropriate location for a windfarm some months back but by and large Mainpower has had the running on the PR front. The opposition is, in the main, not against wind power, nor the visual impact of the turbines or even against having a windfarm in the general area but wishes to see the ridge protected without the damage resulting from the windfarm construction.  There are other possible sites in North Canterbury, maybe not quite as convenient and they may be more expensive to develop. The battle that is shaping up here is a battle between electricity and the environment. Perhaps no other windfarm in New Zealand or overseas has been proposed for such a unique area of ecological importance.

The Resource Consent application from Mainpower has been with the Hurunui District Council for many months but has only just recently been notified with submissions closing on 1 August.  Environment Canterbury’s Biodiversity Strategy was signed by most of the local authorities earlier this year. Hurunui was one of two who did not sign, preferring to produce their own.  Many people will be watching to see how the council stands in the face of a threat to one of the most ecologically unique parts of Canterbury.

Hydro has been a mainstay of our electricity generation but we are no longer prepared to  dam every river, in fact it now seems almost impossible to dam any river. It is easier to get approval for a wind farm site and there are many undeveloped potential sites around the country, many with little or no ecological value.  The Mount Cass Ridge is not one of these, it has significant environmental values.  Just as we wouldn’t dam a scenic gorge because it would be easy power we shouldn’t be setting out to inflict such damage on a unique part of Canterbury. Future generations will not thank us if we allow such an ecologically-significant landscape to be irreversibly damaged for a windfarm when there are alternatives.

There are certainly more challenges ahead for New Zealand as we seek to find a balance between our need for electricity and our desire to protect our environment.  In finding that balance we can’t leave every plant, tree and rock untouched but there are other windy ridges in North Canterbury. The destruction that will be wrought on the Mount Cass Ridge if this proposal by Mainpower goes ahead in it’s present form is quite simply a ridge too far.