Note that DoC are one of the parties that have approved this destruction — from the Wanaka Sun:-
In a case of Murphy’s law, just when one attempt at environmental repair was going well, another falls spectacularly apart. John Darby, Wanaka’s local grebe expert, who has given many years of his life to encouraging grebes to breed successfully in Roy’s Bay on Lake Wanaka, is astonished and dismayed that just over the hill in Lake Hayes, a foreign developer is destroying the nesting habitat of native endangered birds.
The southern end of Lake Hayes has been described by the Otago Regional Council as “a regionally important wetland” and one that Landcare rates as “an unusually rare natural wetland.” The developers are currently driving a 68 metre boardwalk through the unbroken vegetation belt at the southern end to the lake edge. “I am astonished and dismayed at the huge amount of damage that has been done. Apart from the destruction of the ecosystem in this immediate area, the track is going through the nesting habitat of grebe and marsh crake and possibly bittern. The impact is huge, not only by way of habitat, but also the disturbance this will cause when it is used by humans, dogs and predators alike,” said Darby.
Darby started his journey with grebe many years ago. “Before coming to Wanaka I had only ever seen one live grebe in my life, that’s how rare they are. Grebes are a family of birds that go back 40 million years or more.”